APPEAL TO RUSSIA

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29801, 18 April 1962, Page 24

APPEAL TO RUSSIA

Ban On Baking Of Matzoh (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, April 16. Delegates to the American Jewish Congress’s national biennial convention charged the Soviet Union yesterday with “direct and overt official anti-Semitism.” They appealed for a withdrawal of the Soviet ban against baking matzoh. the ceremonial unleavened bread. A resolution adopted by the 500-member convention expressed “deepest concern” at Soviet Government action against Jews there. It charged that Russian Jews “are denied the means to perpetuate their faith and develop their culture through education of their children and youth.” The appeal came after diplomats at the United Nations had privately put pressure on Soviet delegates to have the matzoh ban rescinded. The bread is required for eating during the Passover. The convention also warned of a “rising incidence of antiSemitic publications and activities” in West Germany. It said anti-Semitism and rampant nationalism existed in even greater degree in East Germany. The resolution noted that recent public opinion polls in West Germany indicated that ‘‘two-thirds of the residents of West Berlin—typically the most liberal segment of Germany—object to the appointment of Jews to government positions.”