THE DENIAL OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM OF JEWS BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP65B00383R000200190007-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: January 1, 2000
• Content Type: OPEN

Approved For Release 2010/04/27: CIA-RDP65B00383R000200190007-5
1963
Here are a few comments typical of
those opposing the wheat sale:
Farmer from Greene County:
Just helping Russia to bury us at our ex-
pense.
Farmer from Sangamon County :
One year ago this country was alerted to
the prospects of a third world war, avoided
by promises to get soldiers out of Cuba, mis-
siles, etc. No proof by inspection as pledged.
Why do we reward the unfaithful?
Farmer from Calhoun County:
When you have a club, don't give It to your
enemy and expect him not to use it.
Farmer S from Cass County:
Let's wipe out hunger in the free countries
first.
Farmer from Hancock County :
I do not have a bit of confidence in any-
thing they do or say, slid I wouldn't trust
them any further than I could throw a ton
bull by the tail.
Farmer from Greene County:
How does it happen that Freeman did not
know of a shortage of wheat when he was
In Russia? Is it possible Russia is storing
food to carry through some crises?
Farmer from Morgan County:
Nor the $43 a bushel corn.
Farmer from Sangamon County:
I Flo not believe we 'should deal with a
bunch of crooks and murderers of Khru-
shchev or any of the satellite countries. I
think we will lose if we do.
Farmer from Cass County:
I do not approve, but I feel that I am in the
minority because the majority will put the
dollar ahead of principle.
Farmer from Jersey County:
This goes for Tito, too.
Farmer from Macoupin County:
Remember the scrap iron we sold Japan.
Farmer from Morgan County:
The New Frontier is taking us back to
where Roosevelt took us and left us, If I
gave you my honest opinion this paper would
be scorched.
Farmer from Adams County:
Farm votes should not be for sale.
Farmer from grown County:
This is one of the most stupid decisions
the present administration has made yet.
Why (many whys) should we be cooperative
with our most dangerous enemy? Why
should we?
Farm wife from Sangamon County:
I am a farmer's wife and to h- with
Russia. They don't care if their own people
starve.
Farmer from Jersey County:
Why feed our'worst enemy?
Here are comments ' typical of those
who said yes to the wheat sale but added
their own stipulations:
Farmer from Brown County:
But let's have those troops removed from
Cuba in the deal.
Farmer from Schuyler County:
I do think it would have been a good time
to Insist that Russia withdraw from Cuba.
Farmer from Jersey County:
Provided we get a full cash payment on
delivery and provided Russian troops are
withdrawn from Cuba.
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - HOUSE
Farmer from Jersey County:
it is a mystery to me as to why the United
States is selling wheat to Russia and Russia
is not paying the United States for past
debts..
They just as well sell them wheat. They
turned Cuba over to them. Broke the Mon-
roe Doctrine without a struggle.
Farmer from Schuyler County:
If [it] would get rid of some surplus on
a Cash basis paid in gold at our port, and
they agreed to get out of Cuba and stay
out. I think we should get some settlement
on Germany. And do they need wheat or
are they trying to trick us? We should have
market price at our port.
Farmer from Greene County:
We had just as well sell wheat to Russia,
because we trade with other countries that
will trade with them. But let's don't give
it to them. Looks to me like a good time
to use a little leverage.
,Farmer from Adams County:
I approve selling wheat to Russia for what
they need, but do not think we should sell
them enough to dole out to their satellites.
I think we should get credit for helping feed
those people. If Russia objects, those satel-
lites will know who kept them from getting
our wheat.
Farmer from McDonough County:
I would approve only if Russia used it for
their own use and they pay their debt due
the United States first.
Farmer from McDonough County:
"I feel that if we don't sell it direct some
other country will buy and divert to Russia.
However, I have these reservations. In ex-
change for the deal we should have some
consideration such as: Russians out of Cuba
a" relief In Berlin, or some other concession
of importance.
AD HOC COMMITTEES CIRCULARIZE
CONGRESS ON BRACERO PRO-
GRAM
(Mr. TALCOTT (at the request of Mr.
HARSHA) was granted permission to ex-
tend his remarks at this point in the
RECORD and to include extraneous mat-
ter.)
I Mr. TALCOTT. Mr. Speaker, there
are a number of ad hoc committees with
religious sounding names who are cir-
cularizing Congress with statements and
resolutions in opposition to an extension
of the bracero program,
Seldom do these committees or relig-
ious associations give their credentials
or the basis of their views or valid rea-
sons for their resolutions. A little in-
'vestigation will reveal that they have
made little or no objective study of the
problems, many have never been near a
-farm-some only recently, after their
commitment to oppose the bracero pro-
gram-some did not and do not know
the difference between a "wetback," a
"green carder" or a bracero. Most have
never lived near a migrant farm family
or in a rural community. None has
ever been a local governmental official.
,None has presented any alternative pro-
posal.
The simple fact is that they do not
know or understand the problem of the
'farmer or the bracero or the domestic.
If you want a religious answer to the
bracero issue, consult your personal pas-
19227
tor, priest, or rabbi. The clergy in areas
where the bracero works and lives do not
oppose the program. They have facts,
experience, and knowledge, as well as
compassion, theological training, and
morality.
Naturally, all of us, proponents and
opponents of the bracero bill, should be
concerned with the pathetic plight of the
migrant farmworker's family. The bra-
cero program is an effective adjunct
to a better life for domestic workers. It
is the most satisfactory, humanitarian
program yet devised to solve the social-
economic supplemental farm labor prob-
lem.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR RE-
TARDED CHILDREN
(Mr. FARBSTEIN (at the request of
Mr. FUQUA) was given permission to ex-
tend his remarks at this point in the
RECORD and to include extraneous mat-
ter.)
Mr. FARBSTEIN. Mr. Speaker, I am
pleased to call to the attention of this
body the meeting presently being held in
Washington of more than 1,000 members
of the National Association for Retarded
Children. I am happy to say that my
district in New York, the 19th Congres-
sional District, is well represented at this
distinguished convention.
The National Association for Retarded
Children is a voluntary organization of
national stature. It was founded in 1950
by a group of parents who were anxious
to take action to improve life for their
retarded children. From this small.
nucleus, the organization has grown con-
stantly, until now more than 1,000 local
associations exist across the 50 United
States.
We have recently seen In this Congress
enlightened legislation being passed to
benefit the mentally retarded, legislation
outlining plans for national action far
beyond the dreams these people of NARC
could even Imagine when they formed
their organization. Our country is fin-
ally taking positive action to help the
children and adults who are retarded
today, and to prevent mental retarda-
tion and ameliorate its tragic effects on
the lives of children of coming genera-
tions.
The members of the National Associa-
tion for Retarded Children are to be
commended on the role they have played
in leading action at the community level
to help all of America's 51/2 million re-
tarded citizens. I should like to record
a welcome to them to the Nation's Cap-
ital and wish them continued success in
their endeavors.
THE DENIAL OF RELIGIO S FREE-
DOM OF JEWS BEHIND THE IRON
CURTAIN
(Mr. FARBSTEIN (at the request of
Mr. FUQUA) was given permission to ex-
tend his remarks at this point in the
RECORD and to include extraneous
matter.)
Mr. FARBSTEIN. Mr. Speaker, total
annihilation threatens Soviet Judaism.
All the resources of the state are di-
rected toward this purpose.
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 19228
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - HOUSE . October 24
Alone and isolated, unprotected by law,
cut off from their religious confreres
abroad, victimized by a ruthless and
unmitigating propaganda assault, de-
prived of the sacred accoutrements of
religious practice, the devout Soviet Jew-
ish believer faces the greatest danger to
his religious life, his sacred beliefs and
traditions.
Discrimination against Soviet Jewry in
general and the practice of the Jewish
religion is a matter of official Soviet pol-
icy. A virulent press campaign, designed
to distort the image of the Jew by resur-
recting time-worn anti-Semitic stereo-
types, is a grotesque manifestation of this
policy. In the metropolitan and provin-
cial press, especially in areas where most
Soviet Jews reside and where anti-Semi-
tism is still widespread and endemic, the
Jews are portrayed as worshippers of
money. Rabbis and lay leaders are
always depicted as extortionists of money
from devout Jews ostensibly for religious
purposes, but in reality for their own
selfish gain. Drunkenness is cited as a
frequent problem in synagogue life. In
general, Judaism is ridiculed; its religious
rites mocked; and its tenets portrayed as
potentially or actually subversive.
In addition to the propaganda assault
on Judaism, the Soviet state employs
even more direct methods of circumscribe
the influence and effectiveness of Juda-
ism. No central organization is per-
mitted to unite congregations, facilitate
communications, and in general to serve
the spiritual needs of the Jewish religious
community as a whole.
The state prohibits printing facilities
for the Jewish community. Thus, there
are no Jewish religious publications. No
Hebrew Bible has been published for Jews
since 1917. A Russian translation of the
Jewish version of the Old Testament has
never been permitted. Nor has a Jewish
religious book of any kind been published
since the early 1920's, except for the
recent publication of a siddur; that is,
a Sabbath prayerbook. In 1958, an edi-
tion of only 3,000 copies of a prerevolu-
tionary siddur was made available to the
many thousands of practicing religious
Jews. No prayerbooks for use on special
religious occasions have been published,
and Jews must rely on photographed
copies of their religious calendars sur-
Jewish religious leaders have suffered out our position toward such a move in
direct personal attacks by Soviet au- clear and concise terms:
thorities in a campaign of attrition and
pressure on the Jewish community which
has systematically increased since the
middle of 1961. In June and July of 1961,
synagogue presidents in six major pro-
vincial cities were deposed. Six lay reli-
gious leaders in Moscow and Leningrad
were secretly arrested. In October 1961,
the Moscow and Leningrad leaders were
secretly tried on charges of alleged es-
pionage and sentenced to long terms of
imprisonment. Soviet Jews are made to
feel disloyal no matter how innocent
their relations may be with Israel or
nations of the West. In this regard it
is important to note that the religious
Soviet Jew is cut off completely from his
confreres beyond the U.S.S.R. No Jewish
religious delegation from the Soviet Un-
ion has ever been permitted to visit reli-
gious institutions abroad, and Soviet
synagogues are not permitted to have
any official contacts, permanent ties, or
institutional relations with Jewish reli-
gious, congregational, or rabbinic bodies
outside the Soviet Union.
All these acts against religious Soviet
Jews and their practices add up to a
systematic policy of attrition, designed
to intimidate and atomize Soviet Jewry.
This policy seeks to cut the bonds that
link the Jew to his historic religious past,
to isolate him within Soviet society and
isolate him from the world community of
Jewry, and in the end to destroy his
Jewish spirit; for this policy aims not
only at the Jewish religion but also at the
whole of Jewish consciousness.
This policy is, therefore, not another
program in the real sense-it has none of
its spasmodic emotionalism; nor is it
Hitlerian in its mode; it is rather a policy
of gradualism, attrition, and atomization
calculated to seek the same end: destruc-
tion of all those essential qualities and
characteristics, both interior and exteri-
or, that make the Jew a Jew.
I trust the world will take cognizance
of the foregoing and that appropriate
and necessary representations will be
made to the Soviet Union to the end that
recognition will be given to the plaint
of the Jewish people of the repressions
practiced against their coreligionists in
STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR ADLAI E. STEVEN-
SON, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE TO THE UNITED
NATIONS, IN PLENARY, ON CHINESE REPRE-
SENTATION, OCTOBER 16, 1963
Nothing has happened in the world in the
past year to justify the General Assembly
seriously redebating the item which we now
have before us; indeed quite the opposite is
the case. For many years this issue has been
dealt with in decisive fashion by the United
Nations; in 1961 proposals to seat the Com-
munist Chinese and expel the Representa-
tives of the Republic of China were defeated
by a vote of 36 to 48; last year they were
defeated by 42 to 56. In 1961 also the As-
sembly decided by a vote of 61 to 34 that any
proposals to change the representation of
China would come under the provisions of
article 18(3) of the charter and this requires
a two-thirds vote. Since then the leaders
of Communist China have further demon-
strated both in words and deed that they
do not accept the most basic principles of
the charter. The Albanian proposal is con-
sequently totally inappropriate and should
be decisively rejected.
Given the behavior of the Communist
Chinese in the past year, it is even more un-
fortunate that the constructive mood of this
18th session of the General Assembly, a
mood in which all, or almost all, of us have
taken such satisfaction, should be inter-
rupted in the strident and discordant rhet-
oric of the cold war. As President Kennedy
said in his address at the outset of this ses-
sion, the whole world is now looking to the
United Nations to see if the current pause
in the cold war can be stretched into a
period of cooperation during which both
sides can gain "new confidence and experi-
ence in concrete collaboration for peace."
The Albanian proposal to expel one of our
founding members and to replace its repre-
sentatives with those of the world's most
warlike regime is in essence a proposal to
install the chilliest advocate of both cold
and hot wars in our halls.
Two years ago on the eve of our debate on
this subject Communist China had subjected
Tibet to its domination. Last year it was
engaged in aggressive warfare against India,
and by its own admission was using its influ-
ence during the crisis over Soviet missiles in
Cuba to try to prevent the solution which
the rest of the world welcomed. And now
this year we find Communist China not
only embroiled in both old and new disputes,
on all of its peripheries, but also being the
unique and aggressive advocate, alone in the
councils of the world, of the inevitability and
desirability of war as a means of solving
th
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Unnion.
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erhaps the Soviet, international disputes.
reptitiously circulated among themselves.
Many other forms of religious discrim- Government will pay heed. I Mr. President, in the past 2 years 19
rat- tiJ plenary meetings have been devoted to sub-+
ination obstruct the Soviet Jew in
p
tieing his faith. A ban still exists on RECENT ACTION BY THE UNITED . So- Hebrew so that Jews educated in the NATIONS ON ADMISSION OF RED
viet Period cannot participate fully in in CHINA INTO THE U.N.
the liturgy of Jewish religious observ-
ances. Indispensable accoutrements for (Mr. MORRIS (at the request of Mr.
the religious service such as the tallies FUQUA) was given permission to extend
and tefillin are prohibited. The public his remarks at this point in the RECORD
baking and sale of matzoth has been for- and to include extraneous matter.)
bidden. Restrictions on building syna- Mr. MORRIS. Mr. Speaker, I think
gogues has reduced the number to some. that it is worth noting the recent action
60 or 70, and those few are expected to by the United Nations on the admission
serve 1 million believers. Prior to 1957, of Red China into the U.N. This was
Jews had no institutions to train rabbis, the 14th time that the proposal has been
and the yeshiva established in 1957 as decisively rejected by the General As-
an adjunct of the great synagogue in sembly. Again the United States took
Moscow has operated under great re- the lead in opposing such a move and I
strictions. In general, it could not hope should like to call special attention to
to meet the demands that the service of the statement made by Ambassador
a million practicing Jews would ordi- Adlai E. Stevenson, the U.S. representa
narily require. tive to the United Nations, which points
stantive debate on the representation of
China. Nearly all members have expressed
their views. In both 1961 and 1962, proposals
to expel the representatives of the Govern-
ment of the Republic of China and to admit
Chinese Communist representatives were de-
cisively rejected, not by less and less support,
as claimed by the representative of Albania
in his statement of September 27, but by a
no vote of 48 in 1961 and by an absolute
majority of 56 in 1962. One of the preced-
ing speakers, furthermore, has based his case
in part on the erroneous assumption that a
majority of member states recognize Com-
munist China. The fact is, of course, that
an absolute majority of member states-
namely 59-recognize the Government of the
Republic of China.
The Albanian request that this Assembly
reverse itself, that we throw out a loyal
charter member and make room for repre-
sentatives of a regime which is not a peace-
loving state will not bear scrutiny.
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