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tim of this kind of “purge” who is
now teaching history in a “middle
school,” the Russian equivalent of
high school. “Not all of the fifteen
Jews who were dismissed with me
have found positions this good,” he
said-
In a country where the major
source of real information is the
grapevine, a repeated rumor is that
Jews in strategic government posts
have been shuffled around over the
past year or two to less important
positions in the bureaucracy.
“There is little chance for Jews
to get very high up in the bureau
cracy,” a young man, himself a mi
nor bureaucrat, told me. "It is dif
ficult to prove that there is anti-
Semitism,” another man explained.
"They tell you they do not need
you for a job or that you are not
qualified to fill it. Later, they give
the job to your Gentile friend who
you know is no better qualified.”
The field of diplomacy and for
eign policy is tightly closed to Jews,
I was told. Jews are seldom accept
ed in the Institute of Foreign Re
lations in Moscow, the training
school for diplomats. I asked one of
our officials interpreters, a student
at the Institute of Foreign Rela
tions, who had frequently denied
the existence of anti-Semitism,
whether there were any Jews in his
class. He answered that, as far as
he knew, there were not, but that
Jews were not particularly inter
ested in foreign policy, except, of
course, where Israel was concern
ed. In further conversation he said
that since Israel was an instrument
of imperialist aggression in the
Middle East, it was probably just
as well that Jews were not going
into the field of diplomacy.
The professions which appear to
be open to Jews without restric
tions are the physical and medical
sciences, technology, and manage
ment of industrial and commercial
enterprises.
There was widespread feeling
that fewer Jews than ever before
are being accepted into the Com
munist Party, the real source of
power in the Soviet Union. Most of
those who do join the Party, it was
contended, are not representative
of Russian Jewry. They have re
jected their Jewish backgrounds,
they conform to the “Soviet proto
type”; they outdo each other in
attacking the persistence of Jewish
culture and tradition and Israeli
“aggression.” Little help is ex
pected from them by non-Party
Jews in combatting anti-Semitism.
Legal as well as social discrimi
nation is made possible by the his
tory and mechanics of Russian life.
The Jews of Russia do not formal
ly constitute a religious group; they
are considered a “nationality,” a-
part from the Russian nationality.
“Are you Russian or Jewish?” they
are asked. The Soviet Union is
made up of many such nationali
ties, but the Jews are the only ones
without a territory or formal social
or political structure. The designa
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tion “Jew” appears on official iden
tification cards, passports and other
state papers.
Although there have been rumors
circulating about Khruschev’s al
leged anti-Semitism, most Jews 1
spoke to did not seem disturbed.
The ouster of Lazar Kaganovich,
former First Deputy Premier and
the last Jew in the Communist
Party Presidium, was not consid
ered a sign of anti-Semitism. In
stead, the removal of former min
isters Molotov, Malenkov and Shep-
ilov as well as Kaganovich was
welcomed as an anti-Stalinist
move. “Kaganovich never identi
fied himself with the Jews,” an
old man said bitterly. “He was in
a high position, but he made no
move to help us during the days of
Stalinism.’
The Jews of Moscow had read of
anti-Semitism in the United States,
and they asked many questions
about it. Although they had heard
about job discrimination and col
lege quota system, their main in
terest concerned housing. “We un
derstand that Jews are not permit
ted to have apartments in many
buildings in the United States,”
some said. Their interst in housing
is understandable; housing condi
tions in Moscow are deplorable.
In spite of Soviet government
propaganda about anti-Semitism in
the United States, Russian Jews
generally believe that conditions
are much better for American
Jews and they were willing to ac
cept without skepticism anything
I said about the relatively low pre
valence of anti-Semitism in the
United States.
There is a considerable differ
ence between the attitudes of the
younger and older generations to
ward anti-Semitism- Among the
students and younger people whose
memories of Stalin are not so vivid,
there is some optimism about the
future, despite fears of economic
discrimination.
“If the government will let us
alone, anti-Semitism will eventual
ly disappear,’ a philosophy stu
dent told me. “The people know it
is wrong; it is only when the gov
ernment sponsors it that it becomes
a serious problem,” he said.
But today Jews have been sepa
rated from policy-making decisions
in the government, discriminated
in the fields of diplomacy and for
eign policy, in the higher echelons
of the bureaucracy. It appears that
they are increasingly cut off from
admission to the Communist Party,
leading power source in the Soviet
political structure. The Jews of
Russia have no Western-type
channels for change, such as organ
ized Jewish community groups, to
promote policies of non-discrimi
nation. The only w r ay in w’hich an
ti-Semitism can be controlled is
from the top, by governmental de
cree, education and persistent legal
action. With top control in the
hands of a select group from which
Jew’s are generally barred, the an
xiety by many of Russia’s Jews
seems justified.
The Southern Israelite