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8
by the Soviet constitution. The Jews,
too, are considered a national group. In
fact, Stalin at one time attemptcd to
establish a "national home" for them in
Biro·bidzhan in eastern Siberia, ncar the
Chinese border.
In the last Soviet census over 500,000
Jews Jisted Yiddish as their mother
tongue. There are, however, no Yiddish
newspapers, except one literary monthly
magazine, and the Yiddish books
printed are few in oumber. These are
quickly purchased by the Yiddish–
speaking public as soon as they are
made available. Yiddish is slowly dying
out, as there are no Yidd ish ·schools.
(Note: In Israel, where Hebrcw, not
Yiddish, is the mother tongue, there is
still a Yiddish daily newspaper and
publishing house.)
The use of the Hebrew language has
been discouraged continually because of
its association with the Bible as well as
Zionism, the Jewish nationalist move–
ment.
Latent Anti-Semit ism
Jews were anciently barred from sct–
tling anywhe(e in Russia. However, this
changed suddenly when in three succes–
sive wars in 1772,
l
793, and
1
795,
Russia, under Catherine the Great, suc–
ceeded in conquering most of Poland.
All at once millioos of Polish Jews
found themselves unwanted inhabitants
of the Czarist empire.
The attitude of the Czars can be
summed up in three words, "Orthodoxy,
Autocracy and (Russian) Nationality"
as stated by Count Uvarov, minister of
public enlightenment under Nicholas
l.
There Jews were looked upon as an
alíen people who had no place in Rus–
sia. Religionists preached against them
and fanned the flames of hatred.
This culminated in the
pogroms
- bloody riots usually government–
approved and occasionally govcrnment–
cncouraged, lasting at times for days
and taking their toll in plunder, rapine
and the deaths of hundreds if not thou–
sands of innocents - especially women
and children. These persecutions were
so severe that both President Theodore
Roosevelt of the United States and the
British Government strongly denounccd
them. This caused hundreds of thou–
sands and finally millions of Jcws, who
The
PLAIN TRUTH
could scrape up the necessary funds, to
migrate to the United States, Palestine,
Britain and elsewherc.
When the Communists carne on the
scene in 1917, they proclaimed their
opposition to anti-Semitism. But they
also proclaimcd their opposition to
Zionism on the grounds that the Zion–
ists were trying to set up a nation as a
haven for oppressed Jews. The Bolshe–
viks felt that thc Jews should work for
the success of intcrnational Communism
and in that find their havcn.
The utter emptiness of this concept
was clearly demonstrated to the Jews
during the Nazi period, when
1)
the
Communists did little to protest the pre–
war Nazi persecutions,
2)
the Hitler–
Stalin pact enabled the Nazis to con–
quer most of Poland and put mil–
lions more helpless people under Nazi
administration and
3)
during the war
itself, the Communists did help the
Jews, but cnly so far as it was in the
direct interes/
of the Russian war effort.
Finally, after the war, when the Com–
munists took up the Arab cause, the
anti-Zionist pronouncements intensified.
In many a Russian rnind, however, con–
ditioned to centuries of anti-Semitism,
there was little difference between a
Zionist and a Jew.
The Communists are aware what
unbridled anti-Semitism can lead to -
witness the Nazi holocaust. They do,
therefore, attempt to keep it under con–
trol. Nonetheless, "It is guite evident
that, once again, anti-Semitism has
begun to be uscd as an instrument of
public policy to divert the disaffection
of the people to the Jewish scapegoat"
( Baron,
The Rtmian Jew Ullde,· Tsars
alld Sot•iels.
p. 333).
Yet, in spite of anti-Semitism, Soviet
leaders realize that the Jews in the
Soviet Union make a great contribution
to the nation.
J ews Key Citizens
This is one practica! reason why the
Russians do not seem willing to give
carte blanche
approval for its Jewish
population to lea,•e.
While the Jewish people represent
less
than
2%-
of the total population in
the Soviet Union, they account for 15%
of doctors, 9% of aJI writers and jour–
nalists, 10% of the judges and lawyers,
}une
1971
and 8% of actors, musicians and artists.
Jews are also represented by a high
proportion of scientists, educators and
even military men.
If
the Soviet Union
would indiscriminately allow thesc ·tal–
cnted people to !cave, Russian cultural
and scient ific Jife would suffer.
And further, if mass emigration wcre
permitted, the Arab countries would
object most strenuously, because the
majority would undoubtedly go to
Israel and thereby streogthen that coun–
try's position.
Thesc are practica! problerns facing
the Soviet Union which the Jewish lead–
ers at the Brussels conference seemed to
acknowledgc. Forcing the government
of the Soviet Union into an extrcmist
attitude to solve their "Jewish problem"
is not what most Jews want. As Prof.
Hans Morgenthau of City College, New
York, expressed it:
"What we want is quiet diplomacy.
Mass cmigration from Russia is an ideal
unobtainable at the present."
Thus, for the present, it seems
impr::tctical to hope for the Soviet
Union to relcase their Jewish nationals
en masse.
But it is hoped that the
Soviet authorities will lessen restric–
tions on their Jewish population and
allow them freedom to practice thcir
religious beliefs and to perpetuate their
own culture without government inter–
ference. Even if a slight amelioration of
the present Jewish plight inside the
Soviet Union can be brought about as a
result of the Brussels conference, it will
havc been deemed a success.
Latest Developments
Following the Brussels Conference,
thc world press reported a sharp rise in
the number of Russian Jcws being
granted exit permits. For the first half
of March, thc number is said to have
averaged about 15 to 25 daily. This is
unprccedented when you consider that
the total emigration for 1970 was only
1000. Furthermore, it is believed that
sorne non-Jews may now try to avail
themselves of the unusual opportunity
to emigrate.
This surprisingly pleasant news has
left Jcwish leaders asking two major
questions. First,
ll'hy
the seemingly sud–
den change of heart on the part of
( Contin11ed
011
page 41)