PLIGHT OF RUSSIAN JEWRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP67B00446R000400170028-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 28, 2005
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: March 2, 1965
• Content Type: OPEN

A912
Approve~6gf& lfj1OAL/ 7ia R13 RRY%" i R000400170028-0 March 2
that the Soviet Government is not insensi-
tive to world opinion, and particularly to the
American opinion. The mere fact that this
year, the Soviet Government permitted the
baking, as well as the importation of
matzoth-the ritual bread that is used by
Jews during the 8 days of Passover-is
a sigh that the Soviets are sensitive to world
opinion.
Again, we thank you for your time and
patience and cooperation, and we do hope
that your intercession will determine the new
Russian Government to revise its past
policies of discrimination and to give Jews
full and unrestricted religious liberty which
is guaranteed under the Russian Constitu-
tion.
Pollution in Lake Erie
EXTENSION OF REMARKS
OF
HON. RICHARD D. McCARTHY
OF NEW YORK
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Monday, February 15, 1965
Mr. McCARPHY. Mr. Speaker, it is
widely recognized that one of the most
serious water pollution problems in the
Nation is that which besets Lake Erie,
a portion of which borders the district I
represent.
Recently, an outstanding presenta-
tion of the Lake Erie problem was made
in a program that was broadcasted by
WGR-TV in Buffalo. I call to the at-
tention of my colleagues a major por-
tion of the script for this program:
DANGER IN EVERY DROP
The beauty of Buffalo's surrounding waters
today obscures a modern-day menace * * *
the massive hazard of pollution. Unfortu-
nately, much of this bright sparkling water
would * * * if bottled * * * have to be la-
beled: ` "Danger in Every Drop." Without
adequate safeguards, it could mean death
* * * not only to portions of the human pop-
ulation * * * but to shipping, industrial
production and recreational facilities as well.
Good evening, this is Pat Fagan. For two
centuries Lake Erie has supplied the lifeblood
for the stream of commerce that has built
Buffalo into the second largest city in the
second most populous State in the Nation.
Ever since a French explorer christened this
site on the Niagara Frontier with the felic-
itous phrase "belle fleuve"-or "beautiful
flow"-its shining waters have been the
crown jewel in the proud diadem of the
Queen City of the Lakes.
But much has occurred historically since
the discovery of the Great Lakes early in the
16th century. Huge harbors have mush-
rcomed from its wild river mouths-primitive
Indian canoe routes have become swarming
channels of commerce-and once-isolated
trading posts have quickened into the busy
pulse beat of cities like Buffalo.
As State Health Commissioner Hollis S.
Ingraham has warned, "polluted water can
menace health * * * deter real estate de-
velopment * * * interfere with recreation
* * * and repel tourists." For in this un-
bottled poison, as he points out, "lurks a
virus that stunts community progress."
And this is the danger in every drop. So
much danger, in fact, that two worried Gov-
ernments-the United States and Canada-
have just asked the International Joint Com-
nalssion to investigate the water pollution
problem in Lakes Erie and Ontario. The re-
quest for the pollution study said the United
States and Canadian Governments have been
informed that the lake waters "are being
polluted by sewage and industrial waste-
causing or likely to cause serious health
hazards on both sides of the border. Not
only Buffalo is threatened-but many neigh-
boring communities as well.
Cities on all of the Great Lakes
stretching their more than 2,000 miles more
than halfway across the Northern American
Continent-are all affected to some degree
by water pollution. But the Niagara frontier
is particularly vulnerable to this deadly virus
because of its location on both Lakes Erie
and Ontario-with its 43 million population
in a 295,000-square-mile area directly de-
pendent upon these two lakes for its water.
Locally, Buffalo's waterfront provides a
vivid picture of pollution in "living color."
This pollution extends along the waterfront
from the river entrance to below Lackawanna.
This so-called "black belt" is a blend of many
contaminating factors. Stanley P. Spisiak,
chairman of the Water Resources Committee
of the New York Conservation Council, has
estimated that a total of 350 tons of cyanide,
phenol, ammonium, compounds, acids and
suspended solids-plus approximately 2,710
gallons of oil-are dumped daily into the
waters of Lake Erie and the Niagara River.
Of all the communities along the Niagara
frontier, the city of Buffalo alone uses about
123 million gallons of water a day. Some
of this, of course, is used industrially for
cooling and processing purposes. For in-
stance, it takes 65,000 gallons of water,
weighing 270 tons, to process a single ton of
steel.
The average Buffalo family of four uses
300 gallons of water a day. Every time you
step into a shower, 25 gallons is consumed
washing off the soap with the spray-every
time you splash in the bathtub, whether
you're big or little, another 36 gallons even-
tually run down the drain-and anywhere
from 20 to 30 gallons are used for such ordi-
nary household chores as washing the dishes
or taking care of the family laundry.
Of this, the water you drink is literally
only a drop in the bucket-about half a
gallon a day. Yet this has always been the
prime concern of local health authorities.
Buffalo's drinking water is under constant
24-hour analysis in the Erie County Health
Department's testing laboratory on the top
floor of city hall. Here, health department
inspectors bring daily samples of water from
the city's filtration plant at the foot of
Porter Avenue. Bottled in sterile flasks, the
water samples are first examined by a bac-
teriologist to determine its fitness to drink.
The laboratory tests not only city water-
but samples from wells, swimming pools, and
public beaches in all parts of the county.
Toxicity is sometimes tested by placing
guppies in samples of suspicious water. If
the fish expire, It's a sure sign the water is
suffering from either lack of oxygen or some
form of pollution.
A high bacteria count is the chief menace
in drinking water. When this is suspected,
special millipore filtration tests speed up
the routine diagnosis of the samples. The
10 members of the laboratory staff immedi-
ately swing into action, working around
the clock to analyze the water in less than
18 hours and submit their findings to the
Erie County health commissioner, Dr. Wil-
liam E. Mosher, and the health department
engineer.
Such an emergency occurred on January
13, 1964, when Lake Erie dropped to its low-
est level in 24 years, causing slush ice to
block the intake to the Colonel Ward pump-
ing station. After receiving a laboratory re-
port that contaminated water was pouring
through the rusty pipes of the auxiliary
Massachusetts Avenue pumping station. Dr.
Mosher issued this warning:
"This is an emergency. All citizens of
Buffalo are warned not to drink water with-
out boiling it at least 5 minutes. This boil
order is being issued by the health depart-
ment because of an emergency at the water
intake. I repeat, Buffalo water is unsafe
to drink. It must be boiled before drinking
until further notice."
All Buffalo schools were ordered closed as
low water pressure continued to plague the
city, which normally uses 120 million gallons
of water on a winter day.
The old Niagara River intake-pressed
into service for the first time in 30 years-
supplied about 70 million gallons, or three-
fourths of the city's requirements. It was
sediment from this old intake * * * plus the
lack of filtration facilities at the Massachu-
setts pumping station * * * that resulted
in the "boil water" order. The water en-
tering the well at the Massachusetts sta-
tion was at first very muddy. Massive doses
of chlorine made the water safe * * * but
quite unpalatable. As the crisis continued,
Dr. Mosher was forced to issue another
order:
"I've been advised that we are losing about
30 million gallons of water a day in our
systems and, therefore, it has become neces-
sary for me to ask all residents of Buffalo
to use water only for essential purposes
such as cooking. Water should not be used
for laundry and so on. I'm also directing
industry to reduce its water to the barest
minimum and to use it only for emergency
purposes."
In 24 hours, Buffalo's water emergency was
over. The boil water order was re-
scinded * * * schools reopened * * * and af-
fected factories resumed normal operations.
However, the health department-in its
role of "watchdog" over the city's water
supply-still cautioned citizens to run their
tap water for at least 3 minutes before using
it for drinking purposes.
The job of clearing the portholes to the
clogged water intake was carried out by an
Army surplus vehicle whose path was
cleared through the ice fields by the Buf-
falo fireboat.
The military vessel used a scoop to re-
move some of the ice * * * then lowered small
dynamite charges to blast open each of the
12 ice-clogged portholes.
No similar threat to Buffalo's water sup-
ply is expected to be posed this winter as
the result of a city project now underway
at the Lake Erie Intake. First * * * dredges
scooped away debris from the bottom of the
lake around the intake and loaded it onto
scows for dumping in deep water off Lacka-
wanna. An estimated 25,000 cubic yards
of debris was removed to permit a freer
flow into the underwater ports of the in-
take. Later * * * specially fabricated metal
"elbows" were attached to the intake. The
11-ton elbows are designed to lower the
level at which water enters the intake.
Aside from such freak quirks of nature,
along with the unavoidable runoff of filth
after floods or heavy rainstorms when more
than the normal amount of pollution pours
into drains, the chief source of contaminated
water is untreated sewage.
Conditions in Lake Erie were described
recently by Frank P. Briggs, Assistant Sec-
retary of the U.S. Department of the In-
terior, as "dangerous, deplorable and dev-
astating." He charged that one of the chief
reasons was "the indiscriminate dumping of
domestice sewage by lakefront cities."
But Buffalo has a better record than most.
Briggs admitted that the city still supplies
good drinking water and has corrected a pol-
lution problem that once was one of the
worst on the lake.
Prior to 1930, municipalities paid little at-
tention to the problem of providing treat-
ment for sewage. State law at the time
called for pollution abatement only in the
case of a direct health menace.
But after an outbreak of disease affecting
40,000 residents of Niagara Falls * * * where
the drinking water was polluted by untreated
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 f965
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD --APPENDIX AM
.
rest .,RI , the brigade, The professor's
study noted:
., A 'fairly comprehensive study of the mod-
ern era (classes of 1953 through 1962) shows
that the student athlete is hardly distin-
guishable from his counterpart in the brigade
in every facet of his full Navy career. As a
group, entering student athletes win their
share of prizes and awards, consistently stand
higher in first class aptitude, and con-
sistently stand slightly lower in relative
standing for the completed course. ''The
group of student athletes has a good reten-
tion rate for service careers,
Other studies at the Air Force Acad-
emy and the U.S. Military Academy have
produced similar statistics with regards
to the relative standing of the varsity
athletes.
The Military Academy, utilizing the
members of the classes of 1064-67 who
were on the varsity football and basket-
ball teams as a sample of athletes, found
their mean score on the college entrance
examination exceed, significantly the na-
tional mean for high school seniors who
enter college.
Additionally a review of the high
school standin s of this sample indicates
that 70 per were in the top 20 per-
cent of their class acid 90 percent in the
top 'half. Considering that the high
school standing is generally accepted as
the one best predictor of academic suc-
cess, this group of athletes demonstrates
outstanding potential.
A review of the Military Academy
classes of 1955-60 indicates no significant
differences between retention rates of
athletes and t.liat of their class. In addi-
tion the officer performance of athletes
is not significantly different from their
contemporaries. As an example, the se-
Iectionrate to captain for those first con-
sidered was 97.9 percent for athletes as
compared to 97 percent for their con-
temporaries. It is further interesting to
note that a survey made of Military
Academy graduates in korea established
that physical ability measures were more
related to the criterion of combat officer
success than any of the academic course
grades or final class standing.
The.Air Force Academy n}aae a, sur-
vey of the high schoolI records of mem-
bers of Its football and basketb$ll squads.
This survey, for the classes of 1964-61,
showed that 80 percent of the football
players were in the top quarter of their
high school graduating class. A total
of 77.3 percent of the basketball players,
in the Air Force Academy classes of
1964-67, were in the top quarter of their
high school graduating class.
In a breakdown, of the academic
grades for the spring semester of 1964,
the Air Force Academy found that. the
average grade of all cadets was 2.81 on
a 4.0 system. The average for the foot-
ball ,sauad was 2.67, and the average for
the basketball squad was 2.56.
A similar correlation was found in
the percentage study of cadets below
the 2.0-or C .grade-average. The per-
centage below 2.0 for all cadets at the
Air Force Academy was 6.8. The per-'
centage for the football squad was 7.0,
and the basketball squad, 4.5.
These studies show that the high
school records and Academy records of
varsity athletes are almost identical with
the overall cadet averages. The ath-
lete is clearly no drag on the academic
excellence of any of the three academies.
In fact, a, substantially greater propor-
tion of the basketball and football
squads than of their classmates were
on the Commandant's merit list at the
Air Force Academy.
Athletics and intercollegiate competi-
tion are healthy and essential to all
three academies.
It is all too easy to hunt for it "whip-
ping boy" in the case of the Air Force
cheating, but the facts and figures
clearly proclaim the folly of trying to
make athletics the ete noir of this
situation. __-i'? /'
Plight of Russian Jewry
EXTENSION OF REMARKS
OF
HON. CHARLES McC. MATHIAS, JR.
IN 'I'lfE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Tuesda::l, March 2, 1965
Mr. MATHIAS. Mr. Speaker, many
Americans are becoming increasingly
concerned about the tragic plight of the
Jewish people in Russia. Last Septem-
ber I wrote to the President of the United
States asking him to protest the discrimi-
nation against the Jewish people in Rus-
sia. I believe my colleagues in the Con-
gress will be interested in reading a
statement on this subject made today be-
fore a Joint meeting of the Rabbinical
Assembly of America of the Greater
Washington area and the Maryland dele-
gation.
STATEMENT BY RABBI JOSEPH M. BRANDRISS,
"PRESIDENT OF THE RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY OF
AmERTCA OF THE GREATER WASHINGTON AREA,
MARCH 2, 1965
Distinguished Senators and Congressmen of
our beloved State of Maryland, permit me at
first to express to you the gratitude of the
members of my organization, the Rabbinical
Assembly of America of the Greater Wash-
ington area, as well as our own gratitude for
your having taken time off from your busy
schedules to meet with us this morning. Be
assured that we greatly appreciate it.
With me are Rabbi Tzvi Porath, the sptr-
itual leader of the Montgomery County Jew-
ish Community Center, and former president
of the Rabbinical Assembly of America of the
Greater Washington Area, Rabbi Lewis Wein-
traub, spiritual leader of 'temple Israel, and
former president of the Washington Board of
Rabbis, Rabbi Sanford Jarashaw, the spiritual
leader of Temple Shalom, representing the
Conference of American Rabbis, and Mr.
Isaac Franck, the executive director of the
Jewish Community Council of Greater Wash-
ington, representing 130 Jewish organiza-
tions.
'"We are thus representing all the constit-
uent agencies of the Synagogue Council of
America. We have come here to plead with
you distinguished representatives of our great
State of Maryland, to bring the plight of
Russian Jewry to the attention of our Presi-
dent, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and to urge
our Ambassador, Adlai Stevenson, to bring
the violations of the rights of Russian Jewry
before the United Nations.
We plead with you to communicate with
the State Department and to urge it to inter-
c$de with the Russian ?Government . that. it
put an end to its present anti-Semitic course.
We would also like to request that you urge
the House Foreign Affairs chairman, and the
members of the committee, to hold hearings
and to support a resolution condemning
Soviet anti-Semitism.
. For quite a number of years the Soviet
Government has been pursuing anti-Semitic
activities of an alarming nature.
Synagogues are being closed. Their num-
ber has been reduced to less than 100 for
3 million Jews.
No Hebrew Bible has been published for
Jews since 1917.
Hebrew schools are nonexistent.
There is no public Jewish religious in-
struction at all. . Jewish children are not
permitted to be taught the language of the
Bible-the language that binds Jews to-
gether, and to their ancestral faith.
Despite the fact that Jews are officially
recognized as a religious group, they are not
permitted to set up any central coordinating
body, similar to those of various Christian
denominations, the Moslems, and the
Buddhist, nor do the Jews have any religious
publications, like the other religious groups
have.
Of all the religious groups, only the Jews
are prevented from establishing contact with
their coreligionists in other countries.
The Russian Orthodox Church Is now a
member of the World Council of Churches.
Soviet seminarians attend Protestant and
Moslem institutions of learning abroad. No
such permission is given to Jewish theological
students.
The training of religious functionaries is
limited to a single Yeshivah, to a single
school, which leads a precarious existence.
Only five students are presently in
attendance.
Jewish cultural life too has been banned
since the Stalin persecution of the Jews.
A decade after Stalin's death, there is still
no permanent Yiddish theater.
Such kind of a policy on the part of the
Russian Government toward Jews, violates
the Soviet Constitution's guarantee of na-
tional self-determination, and the legal rec-
ognition of the right of all nationalities with-
in the Soviet borders to cultural freedom.
The Soviet policy amounts to spiritual and
cultural strangulation of Judaism in Russia.
The Soviet press and radio have been
conducting an extremely bitter anti-Semitic
campaign, not only against Judaism, not
only against the Jewish religion and culture,
but also against Jews as. human beings,
branding them as criminals. They are
accused of disloyalty toward the state; they
are accused of economic crimes.
the Soviet press features trials that result
In death sentences. To date, 36 such trials
have been reported In 26 different cities. In
these trials, death sentences have been
meted out to 70 individuals, of whom 45 are
Jews.
In a number of cases, the Jewish religious
affiliation of some of the "culprits" is made
explicit. The synagogues are portrayed as
the place of illegal transactions. Religious
Jews are mockingly described as "money
worshippers"; the rabbi is shown as their ac-
complice; their family connections in Israel
and the United States are pointed up. In
general, the Jews are presented as people
whose only "G-d is gold."
We could go on and on. In sum, Soviet
policy places the Jews in the most difficult
situation. They are allowed neither to
assimilate, nor to live a full Jewish life, nor
to emigrate to Israel or any other place
where they might live freely as Jews.
We therefore have come here to ask your
understanding for the plight of Russian
Jewry. We' know that many of you have
already approached the President, to protest
the outrages perpetrated on the Jewish
people in Russia, and we are greatly in-
debted to you for it.
American Jewry is most encouraged: by
your sympathy and helpfulness. We know
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