211. Letter From the Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations (Dutton) to Senator Kenneth B. Keating0
Dear Senator Keating: I want to thank you for your communication of June 21 requesting information on the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union for an organization of your constituents deeply concerned with this problem.1
[Page 457]The Department can well appreciate and shares your constituentsʼ distress about the news which has been coming from the Soviet Union with its unfortunate implications for the status of Soviet Jewry. The Department has given considerable thought to this serious problem.
I am sure you are well aware of the increasing evidence of interference in recent years with the Jewish religion in the U.S.S.R. which has been publicized by the national press services, newspapers and other information media, and such organizations as the Synagogue Council of America, B’nai B’rith and Jewish Minorities Research. The desecration of cemeteries, closing of synagogues, dispersing of prayer meetings, arrests of lay leaders, and the prohibition of certain Jewish religious practices have been well established.
It is not clear from the available information whether police action against various individual Jews has its actual basis in anti-Semitism or whether this arises from the presently intensified campaign of the Soviet authorities to stamp out black marketeering, speculation and other economic crimes involving illegal manufacturing, theft or misappropriation of state property, bribery of officials, and other chronic abuses. The majority of the Jews arrested have been accused of such acts, considered criminal under Soviet law, and susceptible to harsh sentences up to and including capital punishment.
It is likewise not possible to determine whether Soviet Jews are deliberately being singled out as Jews for a disproportionate amount of condemnation and victimization. However, a number of the Soviet press accounts of these cases have been written in such a manner as to reflect anti-Semitic attitudes by the authors who hardly would have written in this vein unless they anticipated at least tacit approval of this line by Soviet authorities. The same newspaper accounts, however, which have given prominence to Soviet citizens with Jewish names alleged to have been involved in illegal commercial activities usually have listed Soviet offenders of non-Jewish backgrounds as well. The Soviet newspaper Sovetskaya Kirgiziya of March 25, 1962, in giving a further report about the exposure of widespread illegal economic operations in Frunze reported originally to have involved 54 offenders, listed the names of 33 persons, 15 of whom had identifiable Jewish names.
The long-term Soviet campaign against religion generally and individual religious groups and organizations in particular, although varying in intensity at times, continues unabated. In the post-Stalin period, the major emphases in this campaign have been on intensified atheistic and anti-religious propaganda, the increased application of social pressures, non-violent if sometimes repugnant forms of “persuasion,” administrative restrictions and legal impediments (as in the case of the Moscow ban on matzoth baking) and occasional trials of religious figures or members of religious minorities on ordinary criminal charges. [Page 458] Such trials, publicized so as to discredit both the individuals involved and, indirectly, the religions they represent, also seem intended to coerce or intimidate by example the victimsʼ co-religionists.
The Soviet publication “Party Life” of May 9, 1962, confirms that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has stepped up the anti-religious activities since the 22nd Party and social organizations have recently strengthened what is described as “scientific-religious propaganda”; that religious sects have been dissolved and that there has been an increase in the number of people who have renounced religious beliefs. Allegedly at the request of former believers, many churches and prayer houses have been closed. The article hints that believers may be prosecuted under the Soviet criminal code in the statement that in violation of Soviet legislation, the leaders of cults engage in religious propaganda beyond the limits of their religious buildings, organize religious rites in the apartments of believers, and attract children to attend services in prayer houses. The standard anti-religious techniques are described as radio and television broadcasts, motion pictures, public lectures, and individual work among believers.
The above methods have not succeeded in stamping out religious beliefs and practices in the Soviet Union. Despite the reports of more forceful action against Soviet Jewry, and other religious groups, it still does not seem that the Soviet authorities have decided to return on a large scale to the extremely repressive methods employed against religious groups and racial minorities during the Stalin era.
We have given serious consideration to the request that the Soviet Government be approached on this problem. The situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union was brought to the attention of the Soviet Government several times in the past, with little positive result. At the time of the Khrushchev visit in September 1959 the Department asked Soviet Ambassador Menshikov to give serious and sympathetic consideration to requests by representatives of American Jewish organizations to arrange a private meeting with Mr. Khrushchev. While no such meeting was arranged, President Eisenhower did bring this matter to Mr. Khrushchevʼs attention during the Camp David discussions. Mr. Khrushchev indicated his awareness of the question but stated that the Jewish people in the Soviet Union are treated like everyone else. The President told Mr. Khrushchev of the concern that had been expressed to him by representatives of the Jewish people in the United States over the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union. On September 26, 1959, former Secretary of State Herter, in a meeting with the Soviet Foreign Minister, said he wanted to bring to Mr. Gromykoʼs attention the concern which was felt in the United States with respect to the status of Jews in the U.S.S.R. Mr. Gromyko, however, replied that this was an internal matter for the Soviet Government.
[Page 459]It is very difficult for our Government to contribute to the direct solution of the problems of minorities in a territory where a foreign sovereign government exercises full control. Further, and more importantly, it is doubtful if further protestations would be helpful to the Jews in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Government has accused Soviet Jews of being under the influence of foreign governments, including the United States. Further intervention concerning the problems of the Jewish minority in the U.S.S.R. might well redound to the disadvantage of Soviet Jewry.
There are, however, widely recognized goals and standards in the field of human rights, such as those expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.2 The force of world opinion has become an important factor to discourage certain governments from pursuing policies which result in the persecution of their own nationals on religious and other grounds. The United States naturally looks with favor on activities by organizations and private individuals which effectively bring such persecution to the notice of world opinion.
In accordance with the principles set forth in the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Department strongly condemns all Soviet violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. As a result of United States initiative, the Commission on Human Rights has decided to include information from nongovernmental organizations in consultative status in its next series of periodic reports, which will cover the years 1960-62. The reports deal with human rights developments in member states of the U.N. and may therefore provide an opportunity for presenting data on the Soviet repression of religious and minority groups for consideration by the Human Rights Commission.
If I may be of any further assistance to you, please do not hesitate to call on me.
Sincerely yours,
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 761.00/6-2162. No classification marking. Drafted by Richard C. Scissors (P/OPS) and cleared in P, H, andEUR/SOV.↩
- Attached, but not printed.↩
- For text of this declaration, December 10, 1948, see A Decade of American Foreign Policy: Basic Documents, 1941-1949, pp. 564-567.↩
- Signature of the officer who initialed for Dutton is illegible.↩