Anti-Semitism In Russia

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32361, 29 July 1970, Page 7

Anti-Semitism In Russia

(By G. W. CORNALL, of the Associated Press, through N.Z.PA..) NEW YORK. The Star of David, symbol of the world’s oldest, most basically formative and most persecuted faith in God, is a sign of ridicule today in the Soviet Union. If figures regularly in cartoons reviling Israel and her Jewish adherents. “There has been a marked increase in pressures on Soviet Jews, but they are no longer passive,” says Gunter Lawrence, after three years research into the matter. “They are asserting themselves more than ever before.” But despite their sharpening resistance, they are up against a mounting tide of Soviet anti-Semitism, as documented in various studies in the United States, including Lawrence’s new book, “Three Million More?” The question, referring to the Soviet’s total Jewish population, recalls the six million Jews slain under Nazism and suggests that a similar yet craftier shadow now hovers over the Jews under Soviet Communism. “It is a genocide of the spirit instead of a genocide of the flesh,” said Lawrence, distinguishing the present Soviet campaign from the Nazi mass slaughter. But he questions whether the spiritual assault is any less destructive. Although denied by Soviet officials, the Communist Government has moved systematically to erase Jewish heritage and culture, Lawrence says, in ways resembling those of the earlier Tsarist regime. “Almost the same means are being used, but they are more subtle,” he said in an interview. “But the victims are the same—the Jews.” Similar conclusions are drawn in the current issue of religion in Communist-dom-inated areas, issued by the

National Council of Churches, and edited by the Rev. Drs Paul Anderson and Blahoslav Kruby, both experts on Soviet policies. “Never before has the Soviet press published so many anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-Semitic articles,” says Dr Kruby. “Many anti-Israel cartoons are reminiscent of the notorious Nazi anti-Semitic weekly, ‘Der Stumer.’ ” Reproducing samples of the anti-Jewish drawings and articles, the publication also cites private letters, appeals, and statements reaching the Vatican, the United Nations, and the World Council of Churches about intensifying “harassments and persecution.” Lawrence, a former staff

officer of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and now a communications consultant to various Jewish groups (including the Joint American Conference on Soviet Jews) travelled extensively in Russia gathering his data. He says that all religions there are under restriction to some extent, but that Jews are a “special target” of efforts to suppress their customs, identity, Convictions, and religious observances. “The main pressure is to prevent them from living as Jews, while other groups are allowed to perpetuate their cultures within the limiting confines of an atheist State,” he said. For example, he noted that other cultural

groups, such as Ukrainians and Germans, are allowed to have cultural clubs, theatres, and schools to teach their particular histories—but Jews are not permitted to do so. He also cites statistics on the tiny trickle of Hebrewlanguage books, compared to the much larger flow for other groups—such as Ger-man-language books—even though Jews far outnumber citizens of German origin. Jews, retaining their identity, also encounter employment and university discrimination, Lawrence says. He observes that “shutting down a synagogue is now routine,” with 354 closed in recent years and only 60 left. He says that the intimidation is cyclical, varying up

and down. Conditions for Jews now are not as bad as under Stalin, or as in the' mass arrests and persecution of the 1961 “economie'trials,” when 200 wer# executed, mostly Jews. “Now the aggressions are more subtle,” he said. The Soviet Jews themselves have “changed tremendously,” from “the Jews of silence” to outspoken protest against their second-class status, thus risking reprisals. If the Middle East situation worsens, Lawrence said, it could bring harsher repressions against Soviet Jews. He emphasised that past experience shows that protests from abroad often help, “We must have protests and more protests,” he said.