Basic HTML Version
''LET MY PEOPLE GO''
In February a
conference of
750 Jewish leaders in Belgium
considered the plight
of
Jews in the Soviet Union . Here is
a dual report by two
of our correspondents
tracing the im–
portan# historical
reasons
for today's problems and what
the
outcome
might be in the
future.
by
Ernest
l.
Martín and Harry Eisenberg
Brussels, Belgium
T
HE ETERNAL HOPE
and determina–
tion of the Jewish people was
again expressed by Mrs. Golda
Meir, in a personal message sent to the
conference in Brussels:
"Let us cal! upon men of good
will, Jew and non-Jew, throughout the
world, to join with us in the appeal to
the authorities in the USSR - 'Let my
people go.'"
This is the hope of Jews worldwide,
including the more than three million
Jews in the Soviet Union today. That's
more than the total Jewish population
in the State of Israel.
What concerns world Jewry is the
reluctance of Soviet authorities to allow
large numbers of Jews to emigrate.
1t
is this Soviet restriction of rnove–
ment, coupled with a government ban
on the outward practice of their religion
and culture, that irritates so many Jews
the world over.
"These restrictions violate one of the
first principies of human rights - the
right to choose one's own place to live
and to worship as one picases," was a
common statement by many delegates at
the confereoce in Brussels.
Arthur Goldberg, past Unitcd States
Ambassador to the United Nations, said
at the conference that no one wished
to antagonize or even
to
speak badly of
the Soviet Union, but the delegates did
want to call attention to the humanita–
rian dauses in the Soviet constitution
that guaraoteed its citizens the right to
worship as they desired. They wanted
these guarantees applied in fairoess to
the Jewish people.
Russia's Relationship With
Israel
The present Russian attitude against
allowing Jews to emigrate can best be
understood by looking at its relations
with the State of Israel over the past 20
years. In 1948, Russia was one of the
first states to recognize the new nation
of Israel. The reasons for this are not
difficult to see.
A full 75 percent of the founding
fathers of Israel were of Russian or East
European extraction, who emigrated
between 1880 and 1930.
There was even the Kibbutz move–
ment among the early Israelis - a share
and share alike communal type of orga–
nization that seemed to have sorne sim–
ilarities to the collectives the Russians
were attempting to establish in the
USSR.
The Soviet supported the new state of
Israel in an attempt to weaken British
inRuence in the Middle East. The
Soviets realized that the Jews had many
grievances against Britain and hoped
these could be the too! that would alíen–
ate the lsraelis from the West. Thus
they hoped Israel could be used as a
bridgehead of Comrnunism in the
Middle East.
But the Soviet Union faiJed to under–
stand the real Jewish aspirations in Pal–
estine. The Zionists were simply making
a national home for the Jewish people,
with no sophisticated política! philoso–
phy behind their plans.
And even the Kibbutz movement is a
unique social phenomenon
not at al/
politically oriented towards the Soviet
ideas of Communism. It was only