Chief Rabbi in London Urged to Call a Conference on Soviet Jews

Maurice Edelman, president of the Anglo-Jewish Association, told a meeting of the AJA Council last night that he had proposed to Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie that he call a conference of Jewish organizations to discuss the Soviet discriminations against Russian Jews. The Chief Rabbi was still considering the suggestion, he said, adding that, if the Chief Rabbi decided against the idea, the AJA would seek other means of holding such a conference.

The Jewish leader, who is also a Member of Parliament, said that shortly after the war, the late Pope Pius XII gave him an audience in which the Pontiff had “denounced anti-Semitism as sinful,” Mr. Edleman said the Pope had told him that he had secretly asked the Catholic clergy to give sanctuary to Jews. “Through this intervention tens of thousands of Jews had in fact been saved, the AJA president asserted. He made the disclosure in touching on Pope Paul’s criticism of “The Deputy” during his visit on January 6 to Jerusalem. The controversial play contends that Pope Pius failed to speak out against the Nazi genocide of European Jewry.