On the left is the front page
of a pamphlet put out by
leading U.S. Zionists, such as
Rabbi Meir Kahane of the
ultra-Right Jewish Defence
League, the main purpose of
which was to win support in
the Jewish community in
North America for the U.S.
war in Vietnam.

This same Rabbi Kahane
testifying before the sub-
committee of the House Un-
American Activities Com-
mittee in 1968 said: ‘*. . . the
war in Veitnam and the war
in the Middle East were part
of the same war, same
enemies . . . Communism is
an entity, a unity. The Israeli
troops fought for America.
American troops in Vietnam
fight for Israel. Both fight for
the free world. . .”

GUEST COLUMN
The Jewish people
in the Soviet Union

The regular Tom McEwen column does not appear this week. Tom is
in the Centennial Pavilion of the Vancouver General Hospital where he
underwent a successful,operation on his hip last week.

In place of Tom's regular column the PT this week runs a special
article by N. FIMOV, editor of Soviet Weekly, London:

TRESSBGQARS PUBLISHES

MEIB KAHANE

FESEPH CHORBA

MHORALL RINE

ersistent attempts to ‘“‘prove’’ the existence of anti-
Semitism in the U.S.S.R. are based either on sheer
ignorance or deliberate distortion.

It is not the custom in the U.S.S.R. to count heads by
nationality or to analyze how many leading figures come from
+ Russia, the Ukraine or Georgia. Jobs are obtained on merit
alone.

Jews, who make up 1 percent of the population of the
U.S.S.R., account for 10 percent of all Soviet judges and
lawyers.

Over three percent of the Jewish population are students in
higher education, whereas the proportion of students in higher
education in the total Soviet population is 1.82 percent.

Eight thousand Jews are deputies to the U.S.S.R. Supreme
Soviet, the Supreme Soviets of the Republics and local Soviets.
Among Jews holding high posts are U.S.S.R. Deputy Prime
Minister Veniamin Dymshits. Chairman of the U.S.S.R.
Construction Bank, Semyon Ginsberg, Deputy U.S.S.R.,
Minister of the Gas Industry, Yuly Bokserman, Deputy
U.S.S.R. Minister of Communications, Iosif Ravish, and many
others.

Soviet musicians such as David and Igor. Oistrakh and
Leonid Kogan, prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, film
directors Roman Karmen, Mark Donskoi and Mikhail Romm,
composer Moisei Vainberg, and writers Aaron Vergelis, Ilya
Gordon, David. Gofshtein, Mendel Lifshitz, Zinovy Telesi, to
quote just a few.

And what about the Jewish drama company in Moscow
(director Veniamin Shvartser) the ‘‘Wandering Stars’ (Anna
Guzik’s group), the Sidi Tahl group, the Leningrad Jewish
drama company, the Birobidjan Jewish People’s Theatre, and
others.

** *

There are 100 synagogues and 300 minians (groups of ten) in
the U.S.S.R. The number of practicing Jews in the Soviet
Union, as elsewhere in the world, has been steadily falling fora
number of years.

There is no official record of the number of believers in the
U.S.S.R. However, selective sociological studies have shown
that in the Russian Federation and the Ukraine only 3 to 6
percent of Jews are Orthodox, in Lithuania and Latvia 5 to 9
percent, and in the Caucasus and Bukhara 7 to 12 percent.
These believers are mainly older people.

In the U.S.S.R. religion is separated from the state. The
number of churches, synagogues, mosques, etc., depends
entirely on the requirements and financial resources of the
religious communities and not on the state.

The state merely provides the land free of charge, which is
easy to do as it is nationalized for the churches or synagogues
for use tax-free. And so Jews, Russians or Tatars have as many

synagogues, churches or mosques as they are ready to support.
** *

Such are the facts.

The Soviet national newspaper Izvestia in a long article on
December 31, wrote that the hypocritical anti-Soviet cam-
paign launched by Tel Aviv and Zionist circles pursues two
aims; to mislead the world and distract attention from their
real crimes against the Arab people, and to urge people of

- Jewish extraction to emigrate from the U.S.S.R. to Israel by
artificially creating a spurious ‘‘Jewish question.”’ :

I would stress what has been said before: there is no
“‘Jewish problem’’ in my country and no one, Zionist or
otherwise, will succeed in creating one.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1971—PAGE 2

‘ROTTEN FROM START’

Four Seasons project

should be

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Public pressure continues to
mount against the Four Seasons
apartment-hotel complex at the
entrance to Stanley Park. It’s
been a rotten business right from
the start, involving federal
cabinet ministers, bankrupt real
estate firms and what-not, a
motley collection of people all
trying to make a fast buck at the
expense of Vancouver taxpayers.

How Council could endorse a
project that calls for the building
of three 30 storey apartment
buildings and a 13 storey hotel so
close to Stanley Park and in this
traffic bottleneck is hard to
understand.

Faced with widespread public
opposition, the federal and local
politicians responsible are
indulging in some fancy
footwork while they try to pass
the buck to one another. But
you'll notice that none of them
are doing anything to halt the
project.

It would be worthwhile, I
think, to review some of the
pertinent facts.

The vote in Council was 10 to 1
in favor of the project. All the
NPA and TEAM aldermen voted
for it. I was the only alderman to
cast a dissenting vote.

The federal government could
greatly restrict the project by
the simple act of instructing the
National Harbours Board not to
transfer the lease of the

squelched

foreshore water lots (which
make up about three quarters of
the property involved) from
Harbour Park Developments
Ltd. to Four Seasons. Four
Seasons would then have to limit
its project to the property
fronting on Georgia Street. This
would not eliminate the project
but it would certainly cut down
the harm it could cause.

The parks board is playing
politics with taxpayers’ dollars
when it suggests that City
Council should buy the property
fronting on Georgia Street from
Harbour Park Developments and
Four Seasons. Why should
Vancouver taxpayers now pay
out millions of dollars for
property that shouldn’t have
been given to these people in the
first place? Aside from the
enormous amount of money
involved, it would be putting the
stamp of legality on an unsavory
business. .

What City Council could and
should do, in my opinion, is to
ask the National Harbours Board
to lease the foreshore water lots
back to the city at the same rate
as before — $1.00 a year. This
would effectively squelch the
project, or at least the major
portion of it. Council should then
develop the foreshore ina
manner consistent with it being
adjacent to Stanley Park,
namely by means of a
restaurant, marine museum,
park walks, etc.

‘Free Chartrand’
demand students

Six hundred students at the
University of B.C. last Wednes-
day voted unanimously to send a
telegram to Prime Minister
Trudeau demanding the release
of Michel Chartrand, president
of the Montreal Central Council
of the Confederation of National
Trade Unions.

The students took this action
after hearing Mrs. Simone
Chartrand, wife of the
imprisoned labor leader, speak
and answer their questions about
the situation in Quebec.

Chartrand is serving a one-
year prison term imposed on him
by a judge for ‘‘contempt”’
arising from remarks he made
following his arrest under the
War Measures Act. He was one
of hundreds arrested and held for
weeks under the Act.

Mrs. Chartrand told a student
questioner that she does not
endorse the actions of the under-
ground FLQ in Quebec. ‘I
believe in working to correct the

social and economic injustices in
Quebec, which made the FLQ
and violence possible.’’ She
sharply criticized the War
Measures Act and the Public
Order Act which replaced it.

The movement for the release
of Chartrand and the hundreds of
victims of the police round-up is
growing in Quebec and across
Canada.

Recently Samuel Walsh, presi-
dent of the Communist Party of
Quebec, said that the ‘‘flagrant
injustice he has suffered at the
hands of the Establishment
demands that all who hold dear
democracy, social and national
justice demonstrate their
support for Michel Chartrand in
this hour of his martyrdom.”

The Communist Party of
Quebec wrote the Montreal
Central Council of the Confedera-

tion of National Trade Unions
offering its full support and co-
operation in public action to win
freedom for Chartrand.

Kelowna la
backs Vici
jobs prote

KELOWNA, B.C.”
three hundred co
workers in this Okané
downed tools for all!
a half last Thursday"
march in downtow
to support thi
demonstration i
taking place at
time.

The protest in
WAC Bennett’s ho
against )
served to drive
point that thous
workers who would
to join the proté
Victoria were th
them in spirit.

Unemployment #
many Interior
cities hard. The
feels the pinch of Th
unemployment and
incomes for apple

held at the Fisher!
Friday night.
Sponsored by the ?

persons sit down to
haggis, turkey,
trimmings.
The haggis was P.
hall by young Drew ©
the Address to the
Burns, was given
Munro Gardner
substituting for lt
retired trade umni0
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Bob and Rick Ma
violinists, played 4 |
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Gardner on the acc™
Griffin sang labo!
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A short address We
Harry Rankin who
the protests against!
oppression which
poems of Robbie”
particularly relevant
humorous gesture,
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become so much 4
tradition of Burns
celebrated by work

The evening cO
dancing to the M
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BRUCE MAGNUS® (
labor secretary of the
Party, will spe? i
meetings in VaM)
Whalley on the fi
unemployment. 5e@
B.C. meetings on P%