Purely Commentary
Enigmatic Russians, Admissions
A po logetics,
A b out Emigration,
ot
Discrimination
Evidence
An Aliya of 8,500
By Philip
Slomovitz From U.S., Canada
Predicted for 1970
Jews' Search for Flight from USSR
An Amazing Russian Explanation: the Right of People
Russia is an enigma on many scores, and especially with regard to NEW YORK (JTA) — A predic-
to Emigrate and the Vast USSR System Akin to Spying
tion that at least 8,500 American
Soviet Russia is not insensitive to criticism. The developing situa- Jews, Zionism and Israel.
Is's an established fact that the present Russian regime, while and Canadian Jews will go on
tion from the appeal of the 18 Georgian Jews to be permtted to go to
Israel reveals how the Russian system works, how scrutiny of its avowedly declaring anti-Semitism to be a crime, has inherited the Aliyah to Israel in 1970 was made
by Gen. Uzi Narkiss, director gen-
citizen is akin to spying upon them, how Russia explains a policy of Czarist anti-Semitic spirit and can not shake it off.
gration and Absorption of the Jew-
refusing situation also show how e rabbis in the Soviet Union have wish to leave, and especially to Jews who desire to settle in Israel?
ish Agency for Israel. Gen. Nar-
become tools of the Communist reg me.
Some Jews manage to get out of Russia—how, we can not now kiss made this statement follow-
The revealing facts appear in a statement entitled "Calls to Rela- explain. One of them, Boris Sperling, a teacher, landed in New York a
tives." It is signed by Merab Lordkipanidze and Avtandil Rukandze few days ago and described his own experiences, how, when he learn- ing the conclusion of a three-day
conference here of 29 aliya de-
who are described as Novosti Press Agency correspondents from Ku- ed about Israel's struggles and successes, he began to preach the Zion- partment emissaries in its 12 of-
taisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. It does not deny that the ist idea in his classrooms; how he was imprisoned for two years; how fices throughout the United States
applications for exit visas has been made, but there is a peculiar many young Jews defied proscriptions of the Communist regime upon
a nd Canada
apology: that the applicants did not represent "18 different families at 'injection of Zionist discussions and sought identity with their people In 1969, General Narkiss said,
all," that: "The persons who signed the appeal are members of four
aliya
families: of Shabat Elashvili, Khaim Mikhelashvili, Khaim Tetruashvili and with Israel. The young Sperling was interviewed by Iver Peterson the figure for American
of the New York Times, and the story published in the Times contain- will total some 6,000, as against
and Bension Yakobashvili. All those families are related to one an- es- this revelation:
some 4,300 in 1968. "The reports
other."
Mr. Sperling believes that "hundreds and thousands" of Rus- of the emissaries were most opti-
A basic principle is involved here. What difference does it make
sian Jews have gone through the frustrating and repetitive proced- mistic," Gen. Narkiss said. "On
how many families are involved, whether it is one or a thousand—if the
ures to gain an exit visa, which must be repeated, he said, each the basis of their successes this
right to emigrate is an accepted one for anyone, anywhere?
time the request is refused and resubmitted, including the letter of year, we have every reason to
But there is much more to the USSR statement as it was submitted
believe that they will achieve in
invitation and the character report,
to us by the Soviet embassy. The Russian writers for Novosti state that
Some of the younger people—"they are far more radical than I 1970 the figures that they realis-
one of the petitioning families made the request for a visa to Israel in
was," the young activist said—have taken to renouncing their tically project. I would say there
December 1968, the others in the first three months of 1969, and then
is a definite breakthrough In
Soviet citizenship.
came an explanatory note with a reference to the reactions of the
American aliya that is most en-
"If so many people try to get out when there is hardly any
Georgian rabbis:
couraging."
chance of it, I ani sure that a majority of the Russian Jews would
The emissaries were also ad-
None of the persons who signed the appeal are being persecuted
go if they had the chance, he asserted.
dressed during their conference by
by authorities, and none of them has been summoned by authori-
Mr. Sperling said that young Jews became more militant, often Gen. Itzhak Rabin, Israel Am-
ties to give explanations. All of them have shelter, their children
to the dismay of their elders. When the six-day war erupted in the bassador to the U.S., Louis A. Pin-
summer of 1967, he recounted, Moshe Dayan, the Israeli general, cus
continue working and attending schools and higher educational
Jewish
chairman of the
became their hero. Young Jews would greet each other by covering Agency and head of its Aliya and
establishments.
one eye in imitation of Mr. Dayan's famous eyepatch and say Absorption Department; Reha-
The Kutaisi Jewish Community as represented by Chief Yakob
"Shalom."
yearn Amir, Consul General of Is-
Davarashvili and President of the Council of the Kutaisi Jewish
Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg,
The Soviet Union declared Israel an enemy and mouted a heavy rael;
Community Yakob Khakhanshvili condemned the actions of those
American member of the Execu-
propaganda barrage against her.
who signed the appeal. "Their references to many members of our
"After that the Soviet authorities thought no one would dare to tive of the Jewish Agency; Gen-
community allegedly wishing to leave for Israel are without any
ask permission to emigrate, since it would be the same as declaring eral Josef Geva, director of the
foundation," they said. "Most of the members of our community
Ministry of Absorption of Israel;
oneself an enemy of the Soviet Union," Mr. Sperling said.
have made no such requests. The Kutaisi Jewish Community has
and Col. Nahum Golan, director
not empowered them to make statements like this on behalf of the
The growing rift had its effect on the older generation, whose
of the Israel Aliya Center in the
believers. For most of us, Georgia, where we were born and grew
members had been carefully assimilated and who recalled the
.U.S. and Canada.
up and where the remains of many generations of our forefathers
Stalinist terror.
are buried, is our true motherland."
"A young Jew might prepare to go to the synagogue," Mr.
Israel Role in World Fair
Sperling said, "and his father would say: 'Why do you want to go?
In Moslem countries and behind the Iron Curtain it has not been
You don't even know the Hebrew alphabet, so how can you pray?' Expected to Hike Exports
unusual for rabbis to be induced to speak out against Zionism, to con-
cur with the ideas propagated by totalitarian regimes and to deny
Why be so brazen? You think they'll let you go?'
TEL AVIV—A large number of
freedom of expression and action to those who are chosen by the gov-
But the son doesn't listen, and be goes and stands in the street Israeli industries participated in
ernments involved for strict control of their rights. In free lands these
with the other Jews in front of the synagogue, because the authori- the Teheran Industrial Fair, or-
compulsions do not work. There have been and there continue to be
ties have closed it, and he shouts 'Israel lives!' and `Dayan lives!' ganized with the help of the United
free emigration movements and USSR-influenced writers. But the two
and they dance the bora. It is something the father couldn't under- Nations. First reports show that
Novosti writers who wrote the applogetic report for the USSR made
stand, because the fear is in his blood. He has seen things we have this will lead to greatly increased
additional indications of Russian attitudes which seem to throw light on
Israeli exports to Iran.
not seen."
the entire question of the desire of some Jews to emigrate.
During the past few years Is-
Russian Communism is, indeed, an enigma. It is difficult to under-
. Describing the status of Georgian Jewry, the freedoms they enjoy, stand why a regime that does not tolerate Jews does not permit them raeli exports to Iran have grown
their 2.400 year history of residence in the Georgian territory of Russia, to leave the country. It is difficult to understand RusSia's enmity for considerably. In 1966, exports to
there are 12,000 Jews in Kutaisi alone, that there are seven Jewish the Israel whose emergence she was second to applaud after President Iran totalled $7,700,000; ,: tri 1967,
deputies in the ,district Soviets, 121 school teachers, 89 doctors, two Truman's recognition. Lots of things are difficult to understand about $10,200,000; and last year $15,-
professors and Shimon Batiashvili is chief designer of the Kutaisi Russia—except her anti-Semitism: that's inherited from the Czarist 800,000. This year the figare is ex-
pected to rise to abut $20,000,000.
Automobile Works.
Black Hundreds.
Since Russia boasts that anti-Semitism is prohibited, why boast
about such elementary facts. But the Novosti writers add the following
to the data about Jews going to Israel:
Back in the early twenties several families of Georgian Jews
settled down in Palestine. In recent years to meet the wishes of
some Georgian Jews to rejoin their families in Israel, the Soviet
government has been granting permission to such families to go to
Israel. From 1967 to this day, in spite of the severance of diplo-
matic relations with Israel, the authorities of the Soviet Georgian
Republic have allowed 57 families numbering 300 in all to leave for
that country. Soon some more families will depart for Israel.
Officials of the Visa and Passport Department of the Ministry
of the Interior of Georgia said that every call from a relative in
Israel, as well as in other countries, is given every consideration in
an attempt to foresee all likely consequences of such a step. What
is more, as is practiced in emigration organs of any country, in
examining the application they proceed not only from the interests
of the applicant, but also from the interests of the state.
Officials of the Visa and Passport Department have also
pointed out that some persons living in Israel resort to forgery
sending false requests to "relatives." For example, the former
butcher Shoikhet from the village of Kulashi, Yakov Mikhelashvili,
and his two brothers who went to Israel from Georgia in 1967 had
sent within two years over 200 requests to Georgia, certified by
Israeli authorities, to their "brothers" and "sisters" and members
of their families for a total number of nearly 2,000. According to
some families who had earlier left on calls from the Mikhelashvili
brothers, the latter had requested from them considerable sums of
for "good offices." "Calls to relatives" of this kind, according to
officials of the Visa and Passport Department, are naturally
ignored.
This is how the Russians expose their own methods of distorting
facts and of creating a smokescreen. Those who do not like Israel
either do or can return whence they come. But the identification of
many Russian Jews with the Zionist idea and with Israel and their
desire to settle there has little if anything to do • with whether it is a
relative who invites them to settle in Israel and to be reunited with
them, or whether it is an identity with the Jewish people that creates
the desire for reunification with their kinsmen on a national basis.
The Russians are admitting restrictions. They concede that Jews
have gene to Israel from Russia. They may as well admit that a much
more numerous group seeks exits from Russia and a chance to go to
their ancient homeland. The restrictions exist. So do those who wish to
defy the restrictions. The right of Russian Jewry's exit is what Jews
everywhere are pleading for with the Soviet regime.
2—Friday, December 26, 1969
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Cabinet OKs Streamlined Committee Setup;
Peres Heads Immigrant Absorption, for Now
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Knes-
set Tuesday approved by a large
majority the appointment of Haim
Gvati and Shimon Peres to head
the ministries of health and immi-
grant absorption, respectively, on
a temporary basis.
Gvati is minister of agriculture
in the new government, and Peres
is a rninster without portfolio.
The two portfolios have been
earmarked for the Mapam Party,
the junior party in the Labor align-
ment. Mapam joined the govern-
ment but has refused so far to
enter the coalition because of
ideological differences with Gahal,
the Herut-Liberal alignment.
Should the Mapam leadership
change its mind, Gvati and Peres
will step down.
Finance Minister Pinhas Saphir
announced that he is resigning as
secretary general of the Israel
Labor Party effective Jan. 1, in
order to devote his full time to
ministerial matters. The Mapai
faction of the party will meet in
two weeks to select a candidate
for the vacated post. Peres has re-
signed as deputy secretary general
of the Labor Party. His successor
will be named by the Rafi faction.
The cabinet on Monday stream-
lined its setup, reducing the num-
ber of ministerial committees from
15 to 9.
Deputy Premier Yigal Allen
retains membership only on the
committee for security matters.
He will remain a member of the
joint government-Jewish Agency
committee on immigrant absorp-
tion and will serve as chairman
of the new body called the Inter-
Agency Commission for New Set-
tlement.
Meanwhile, leaders of the Labor
alignment are considering the ap-
pointment of an Arab deputy min-
ister!' The question was raised by
50 Arab members of Histadrut at
a meeting with the speaker of the
Knesset, Reuben Barkat.
They observed that the Indepen-
dent Liberal faction with four
members in the Knesset has one
cabinet minister and one deputy
minister, while the Arab List, also
with four members, has none. They
suggested that a Druze MK, Jaber
Maadi; be made deputy ministery
of agriculture or police. Another
Arab faction, however, wants a
Moslem Arab rather a Druze to
be appointed.
A third retired general may
soon join the cabinet. Political
sources said that the Labor
Party is considering the appoint-
ment of Gen. Yitzhak Rabin, for-
mer chief of staff and currently
Israel's ambassador to the United
States.
Gen. Rabin, who was comman-
der of Israeli forces during the
Six-Day War, would be named to
the cabinet by the Labor Party
to balance the enhanced status en-
joyed by the Gahal faction since
it selected former Air Force com-
mander Gen. Ezer Weizmann, to
be minister of transport, the
sources said. The Labor Party al-
ready has one general in its cabi-
net ranks in the person of Defense
Minister Moshe Dayan.
On a lower echelon, the direc-
tors general of several ministries
have announced their intentions to
resign.
Traditionally, n e w ministers
have the privilege of selecting
their own directors general when
they take office. The posts and
transport ministeries are
both
headed by new men and their
directors general, were expected to
tender their resignations.
The ministry of tourism Is still
headed by Moshe Kol, but its direc-
tor general, the popular Meir De
Shalit, has announced his intention
to resign after 11 years to take
private employment. De Shalit re-
marked that II years was too long
for one man to remain in a post.
The director general of the minis-
try of interior also plans to resign
although there has been no change
in minister.
PEC Increases Dividend
NEW YORK (JTA) —Directors
of PEC Israel Economic Corpora-
tion, New York, declared a regular
annual cash dividend of 80 cents
per common share payable .Tan.
14, to stockholders of record on
Dec. 29. This compares with a cliv-
idend of 65 cents paid for the pro.
ceding year.
Improvement in earnings and
still further improvement in the
Israel economy prompted the in-
crease in the dividend declaration.