15 Neo-Nazis Defeated in Bavarian Elections
BONN (JTA)—The radical right-wing National Democratic Party lost all 15 of its seats in the Bavarian state parliament
elections. The party, widely regarded as neo-Nazi, polled only 3 per cent of the total vote compared to the 7.4 per cent it won
in the last elections. According to West German law, a party must poll at least 5 per cent of the total vote to be seated in the
state or federal parliaments. The NPD failed to win the required 10 per cent from any one ward and was automatically
disqualified.
In the last elections, when the party headed by Adolf von Thadden was at its political peak, it won 12.2 per cent of the
vote in Central Franconia. Earlier last month the NPD was voted Out of the state parliament of Hesse. The Free Democratic
Party, which had no seats in Bavaria, won 11 in Sunday's election. The Free Democrats are the coalition partners of the
Social Democratic Party of Chancellor Willy Brandt. Political observers said a large part of the NPD vote went to Franz
Joseph Strauss' conservative Christian Socialist Union, the Bavarian wing of the Christian Democratic Union.
The Paris office of the American Jewish Committee reported that the defeat of the NPD in Hesse and Bavaria has prob-
ably ended that party's hope of gaining power through the West German electorate, and extreme right-wing groups are moving
in new directions in their drive for influence.
Among the new would-be leaders identified as seeking to form new focal points for action was Phillipp Golles, a former
NPD member, who has launched an attempt to bring together "everything to the right of the Socialists" for the forthcoming
West Berlin elections, under the Deutsche Volks Partei.
3 Important
Causes
Evaluated:
Histadrut,
ORT at 90 and
Bnai Brith Youth
Editorials
Page 4
THE JEWISH NEWS
Michigan Weekly
Review of Jewish News
Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper — Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle
Vol. LVI I I. No. 12 4ligh•
- 27 17515 W. 9 Mile Rd., Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075, 356-8400 $8.00 Per Year; This Issue 25c
Tribute to Two
Eminent
Personalities
Changing to
Sephardic
Don Frohman's
Musical Career
Commentary
Page 2
December 4, 1970
Soviets Reportedly Offered Deal
Wives of Accused Refuse Chance
to Leave Russia Without Spouses
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Soviet authorities have offered exit visas for
Israel to the wives and families of nine Jews facing trial in Leningrad this
month but were turned down because the wives refused to depart without
their husbands, according to reports published here Tuesday.
The information was attributed to a French tourist who arrived
here after visiting Russia. He claimed that the wives, from Riga, Leningrad,
Tbilisi and Kishinev, were summoned to the offices of the KGB, the Soviet
Secret Police, where the offer was made. They were told they could take
their children and other relatives and that their husbands would be per-
mitted to join them after serving their expected sentences.
The Jews were arrested last spring in connection with an alleged
attempt to hijack a Soviet airliner at Leningrad airport. More than 30 Rus-
sian Jews reportedly have been arrested on those or related charges since
then and are said to face trial. According to reports, the first of the trials
will open in Leningrad Dec. 15.
Jewish sources contend that the charges were manufactured by the
KGB and that the trials are intended solely to intimidate Russian Jews
who have publicly demanded their right to emigrate.
According to the newspaper Yediot Ahronot, the French tourist said
Russian Jews were living in a state of anxiety over the possible effects
of the trials on Jewish life in the USSR.
Interfaith Group Scores Arrests of Soviet Jews
NEW YORK (JTA)—The Appeal of Conscience Foundation, a group
devoted to the preservation of religious freedom throughout the world, has
issued an interfaith condemnation of the "shocking" arrests of more than
two dozen Soviet Jews in recent months.
Their detention "is all the more shocking since Russian authorities,
beginning with Premier Kosygin's declaration in 1968, asserted that Jews
living in Russia would be permitted reunion with their families in other
countries," the statement said. "To arrest those who took advantage of
this offer is an entrapment of the most sordid kind."
The declaration was signed by Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Park East
Synagogue, president of the foundation; Dr. Harold A. Bosley of Christ
Church Methodist, vice president; and the Rev. Thurston N. Davis of the
department of communications of the United States Catholic Bishop's Con-
ference, also a foundation vice president.
Noting that "The mass arrests and the prospects of a trial must be
construed as a measure to stem the tide of applications from thousands of
Jews for exit permits," the foundation officials appealed for the release of
those under detention and urged "leaders of all religious faiths and men to
whom freedom of conscience is dear to join their voices to ours."
Sen. Jacob K_ Javits, New York Republican, and Semzelect James L.
Buckley, New York Conservative, have written to Rabbi Schneier deploring
the upcoming "show trial." Sen. Javits said that kind of trial was "so remi-
niscent of the Stalin era" and "raises anew the issue of Jews being able to
live at peace and in freedom in the USSR and the spectre of the persecution
of the 1930s and 1940s."
Buckley said those arrested were "Jewish prisoners of conscience who,
frustrated by the spiritual and cultural repression of Jews in the Soviet
Union, are known for their persistent demand to leave the Soviet Union for
Israel." He added that "No camouflage will be able to cover up the fact that
these men are on trial for their convictions and are persecuted as Jews."
Mobilize Detroit Protests Against
USSR Bias, Leningrad 'show Trial'
The Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit, adding its voice to the mounting world-
in the Soviet Union, sent an appeal this
wide protest against the forthcoming Leningrad "show trial"
week to Jewish organization leaders and Christian clergymen, urging them to express their concern
in letters to President Nixon, congressional representatives and Russian Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin.
Noting that there are " . . . grave indications that a fresh cycle of 'show trials' of Jews charged
with alleged crimes is being prepared in Leningrad and possibly other cities," the Community Council
warned that the pending trials may signal the beginning of a massive anti-Semitic campaign in the
Soviet Union, recalling the most repressive days of the Stalin era.
More than 30 young Jews are currently in Soviet prisons awaiting trial. Many others have been
crackdown against Jews who stubbornly struggle
subjected to interrogations and searches as part of a
to express their national and cultural identity, or against Jews who have expressed a desire to emi-
grate from the Soviet Union.
The Leningrad trial, now set for Dec. 15, involves the alleged plot to hijack a Russian airplane.
even though there is strong evidence that the persons charged were nowhere near the airport where
the incident took place June 15. The Community Council stated that present information leads to the
conclusion that a broad, coordinated action by Soviet authorities is under way using entrapment, provoca-
tion and ultimately forced "confessions" to produce incriminating evidence against Jews in public trials.
Directing the Council's efforts in this appeal to community groups are Morris Lieberman, chair-
man of the Council's committee on international concerns, and Bernard Panush, chairman of the Soviet
Jewry subcommittee. They described as "urgent" the need to call public attention to these pending
trials and to -encourage the use of United States influence on Soviet authorities. Lieberman and Panush
stated, "Even if the trials in Leningrad proceed as scheduled, our efforts may affect their outcome
and, it may be hoped, prevent their repetition and spread."
Specifically urged were letters to President Nixon asking that U.S. influence be used in the
United Nations in support of the rights of Jews in the Soviet Union to emigrate; contact with
congressional leaders urging them to publicly express their condemnation of the pending trials; letters
and wires to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin protesting against the arbitrary imprisonment of
and community leaders who will lend their support in mobilizing
Jews; and contact with organizational
0111Koidnibd aiatinst SovNt difotts to !silence its Jewish 'minority.
• . •
.... .
(Related Story, Page 36)
Sinking of Boat Calls Attention
to Egypt's Intelligence Activity,
New Cease Fire Infractions
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Cairo Radio accused Israel Wednesday of
sinking an unarmed civilian motorboat in the Gulf of Suez. The
accusation was made only after Israel officially announced 'Tues-
day night that one of its navy patrol boats sank an Egyptian
boat that failed to halt when challenged off the eastern shore of the
Israel-held Sinai Peninsula some time after midnight last Saturday.
Four Egyptian crewmen were drowned.
The Israeli announcement said that documents found on the three
recovered bodies indicated that the men were on a reconnaisance
mission for Egyptian intelligence and also yielded "signs" that they
were smuggling hashish. Cairo radio claimed that "Only unarmed
fishing boats operate in this area" and accused Israel of a "criminal
act against unarmed civilians."
The 3%-day delay between the incident and the Israel announce-
ment of it, and the failure of Cairo to mention it until Israel did,
indicated that neither side is interested in raising a major issue at
this time which might imperil the Suez cease fire.
Some observers here believe the Egyptians are testing world
opinion before acting further. The absence of official comment from
Washington indicated to some here that the U.S. is waiting to see
whether the incident develops or blows over.
Apart from Tuesday night's brief announcement, no details
emerged from official quarters here. A reliable military source told
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Wednesday that the documents found
on the dead Egyptians showed that they were returning to base after
having completed an intelligence mission.
The source said the delay in announcing the sinking was caused
by the need to study and analyze the document. He said the Israeli
(Continued on Page 43)
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