Leningrad Trial Under Way; Local Protest Set

LONDON (JTA)—A group of Dr. William A. Wexler, chair- Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay,
Jews went on trial in Leningrad man of the Conference of Presi- Colombia, Costa Rica and Gua- giving day bombing of the Aero- Anti-Zionist Campaign
Tuesday, according to unofficial dents of Major American Jewish temala. The students stated their flot building in New York, this Intensified in Czechoslovakia
"vigorously denounced by
NEW YORK (JTA)—The anti-
reports reaching here.
Organizations, in a joint state- support of Israel's efforts for was
all responsible Jewish and Zion- Zionist, anti-Jewish campaign of
The reports did not state the ment called upon the "civilized peace in the Middle East and urged
ist
organizations."
It
was
re-
the
Soviet-run Czech media has in-
number of Jews. Nine Jews have world" to not stand by in silence the United Nations to intercede on
been jailed there since last June while "these victims, now marked behalf of Soviet Jewry. The con- called that when the Moiseyev tensified, according to information
Dance
Company
performed
15 when, it was charged, they at- for purging in Leningrad, are vention condemned the Soviet poli-
in from sources at the World Jewish
tempted to hijack a Soviet airliner made martyrs for their zeal for cy of denying Jews the right to emi- Washington and Baltimore, Jew- Congress, the American Jewish
ish students disrupted the start Committee and others.
at Smolny Airport. According to freedom."
grate to Israel.
of the programs by blowing sho-
The basis for the current series
Jewish sources, a total of more
called for an outpouring 1,000 Soviet Jews Defy
fans and singing Hebrew songs of broadcasts and press articles is
than 30 Jews in several cities have of They
condemnation
of
such
"atroci-
KGB
to
Hold
Memorial
but
there
was
no
threat
to
the
a
translation
of the book "Beware:
been incarcerated since then on ties in the name of justice," a
personal safety of any of the Zionism," written last year by a
charges relating to the ailed hi- cry of such "magnitude and inten- Observance for Nazi Victims
performers.
NEW
YORK
(JTA)—The
Ameri-
Russian,
Yuri
Ivanov. The con-
jacking attempt or for other al- sity" that the rulers of the Soviet
Beam had gone to the Soviet trolled publishing house Epochs
leged offenses. All are said to be Union will not be able to disre- can Conference on Soviet Jewry re-
lated
that
1,000
Soviet
Jews
re-
Union
Foreign
Ministry
to
present
has
run
off
20,000
copies.
facing trial.
gard iL
cently defied Soviet police to con- a strongly worded statement pro-
In an epilogue by another writer,
Jewish sources have claimed
They warned that "not only the duct a memorial observance at the testing the actions by Soviet pol- former Czech leader Alexander
that all of the defendants are be- lives of the innocent scapegoats, mass grave of 30,000 Jews slaugh-
ing held on unsubstantiated evi- but the fate of all Soviet Jewry tered by the Nazis in 1942 in Rum- ice in repeatedly denying Rigerman Dubeek and Czech Jewish liberal
access to the U.S. Embassy on Dr. Frantisek Kriegel are accused
dence manufactured by the KGB, may well be at stake."
boli Forest on the outskirts of Riga, "legitimate consular business."
of being in league with alleged
the Soviet secret police, for the
Rabbi Schacter and Dr. Wexler Latvia.
Rigerman, 30, was detained for Zionist spies. It is alleged that
purpose of a "show trial" in- declared that the world, remem-
According
to
the
report,
this
the
fourth
time
in
three
months
many
former Czechs who moved
tended to intimidate other Rus- bering the "show trials" of the latest demonstration of the heroic while attempting to reach the em- to Israel
have returned as trained
sian Jews demanding the right Stalin era, will not be taken in determination of Soviet Jews to as- bassy in Moscow Dec. 10.
spies
"to carry out subversive
to emigrate. But there has been by "this latest mockery of judicial sert their Jewishness despite of-
As American officials, foreign work."
a surprising absence of informa- procedure."
ficial harassment was given by newsmen and Soviet police stood
The newspaper Bratislava
tion or commentary in the Soviet
"The prisoners being tried in mourners gathered Nov. 29, on the waiting at the periphery of the Pravda, which has been running
press, which might have been ex-
excerpts
from the book, claims
embassy,
other
Russian
agents
pected to try to arouse public
picked up the young physicist and that "After having weakened
opinion against the defendants in
Jewish
youth
organization,
with
the
support
Of
the
Jewish
his mother as they waited for a the influence and control of the
advance of a "show trial."
Community Council, will hold a mass picketing demonstration
bus going toward the American Party (in the Soviet invasion of
One source here said that trials
compound. They were taken to two August 1968), the Zionist and
against the initiation of the Leningrad Trials, noon Wednesday
in the Soviet Union for alleged
police stations.
pro-Zionist forces strove to dis-
in Kennedy Square. The demonstration purposely was called on
offenses against the state are of-
the first day of Hanuka, the Festival of Lights, to call attention
rupt the Communist system and
At the first, Rigerman was
ten held without publicity and the
stir up the masses."
to
the
issue
of
freedoms
being
denied
to
Soviet
Jewry.
told
that
he
resembled
some-
Soviet press is informed only af-
Dr. Kriegel and his supposed
one who had robbed a store, and
terward. The theory that Soviet
at the second, he was warned Zionist clique, the charges con-
authorities have a show trial in Leningrad today, like others await-
tinue, "gradually seized key posi-
against
further
attempts
to
reach
28th
anniversary
of
the
deaths
of
mind stems from the nature of the ing trial on trumped-up charges,
the embassy. The Rigermans had tions in the party and state" with
charges and the swiftness with are not criminals," they said. the holocaust victims.
received a written invitation to the aid of Israeli intelligence for-
A plainclothesman of the KGB, visit
which Jews were rounded up in "They have been chosen by the
the embassy from the U.S. ces.
other cities after the alleged hi- cynical Soviet regime to be made the Soviet secret police, attempted consul,
"The illegal activity of Zionism
Peter B. Swiers.
to silence a speaker at the gather-
jack attempt in Leningrad.
object lessons to the 3,500,000 Jews
New York City Commissioner in the country did not stop" with
Documents published in the Rus- in the Soviet Union of what can ing. The plainclothesman withdrew Daniel
the
Soviet takeover, it is alleged.
Greer, who is acting as the
sian Jewish underground news- happen to Jews who have the when the crowd protested. Uni- Rigermans'
The Jews of Czechoslovakia —
volunteer lawyer, an-
paper Exodus smuggled out of the termerity to ask permission, un- formed police then moved through nounced
a
1,000-year-old
community that
that he had sent an ur-
USSR recently claimed that the der Soviet law, to leave the Soviet the throng, taking photographs. gent telegram
to U.S. Secretary of has dwindled from 170.000 before
Evidence of participation in dem-
hijacking charge was never sub- Union and go to Israel."
World
War
II
to
8-10,000 — was
onstrations disapproved by the au- State William Rogers, requesting
stantiated to the satisfaction of
In Los Angeles, the Gavriil Der- thorities has often been used as a prompt confirmation of the family's subjected to similar charges by
any unbiased observer.
the
Stalinists
in
the late 1940s
chavin, the first Soviet freighter
citizenship.
They noted that the KGB ar- ever to dock at the harbor, was basis for dismissal of individuals American
Greer stated: "The State Depart- and early 1950s, and most re-
rested Jews all over Russia and besieged on land, water and air- by from jabs or other punishment in ment
has adequate information in cently this past summer.
searched the homes of many more, student demonstrators demanding the USSR. But the mourners re-
In August. Bratislava Pravda
file to immediately confirm
ostensibly because they were col- justice for Soviet Jews facing trial. fused to be intimidated and none its
their
American
citizenship and ex- and Radio Prague accused Prof.
left, according to the AJCSJ.
laborators of the would-be hi-
Eduard
Goldstuecker, the first
While nervous police, coastguard-
A petition drawn by 38 Riga tend to them the full protection to Czech ambassador to Israel, of
jackers. But the arrests and men and harbor police tried to keep
they are entitled. Any fur-
searches were made within an hour the youngsters away from the ves- mothers in September has finally which
"defeatism
and cowardice." Other
ther delay, especially in light of
after the arrests at Smolny Air- sel, one• demonstrator managed to arrived from behind the Iron Cur-
Lithuanian seaman incident Czech Zionist leaders were simi-
port, too short a time to gather break through police lines to affix tain and has been sent to the UN the
larly accused on the basis of al-
Human Rights Commission's Com- and President Nixon's response to legations in the book "Zionism
evidence or transmit instructions an Israeli flag to her hull.
it, would put the Rigermans in
unless the entire operation was
and Anti-Semitism," by Frantisek
A Russian sailor pulled it off mittee on the status of women.
serious
jeopardy."
The desperate appeal, "to help
planned beforehand.
and threw it into the water.
Since Nov. 9. when Rieerman J. Kolar.
The Knesset cancelled all busi-
Dr. Goldstuecker reportedly left
The demonstration was organ- us break the sinister silence . . . was arrested while attempting to
ness Wednesday for a special ses- ized by the Southern California help us return to Israel, to our enter the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, the country after the Soviet in-
sion to discuss the Leningrad Council for Soviet Jews and the Home," was brought to national more than 25 members of the Sen- vasion znd after being subjected to
Trial.
California Students for Soviet Jews. headquarters in New York of Ha- ate and 70 members of the House charges of "disgusting Jew" and
The session, attended by Presi-
Two of the students, Tom Burns dassah, the Women's Zionist Or- have urged the State Department "Zionist hyena." He was chair-
dent Zalman Shazar. heard an im- and Zev Yaroslaysky, tried to ap- ganization of America, by a tour- to
man of the Czech Writers Union.
proceed without delay-
passioned plea by Deputy Premi- proach the freighter in a rowboat ist for transmittal to the UN com-
Some 4.000 other Czech Jews
Greer continued: "The demand were
er Yigal Allon to the Soviet govern- to paint slogans on her hull but mittee.
also reported to have left the
by
our
State
Department
that
the
ment to permit its Jewish citizens were blocked by harbor police.
At great risk, the women at-
country after the invasion.
Rigermans actually appear at the Jewish Leaders Protest
to emigrate to Israel if they wish.
Meanwhile, a rented helicopter tached their names and addres-
Moscow U.S. Embassy with their Presence of 2 Top Jews
He said the Soviet Union was buzzed the ship, dragging a banner ses to the petition, which des-
claim of citizenship places them Denying Soviet Depression
obliged to do this under the Human that read, "Let The Jews Go."
cribes how they. are neither al-
in a cruel dilemma. On the one
Rights Convention, of which it is a About 50 students picketed outside lowed to educate their children
BUENOS AIRES (JTA)—Jewish
hand, they are not being per- leaders
signatory.
in the Jewish culture and re-
the dock gates.
here were up in arms over
mitted
by
the
State
Department
Speaking of the Leningrad Trial,
ligion,
nor
to
leave
the
Soviet
the
presence in Montevideo, Uru-
A Soviet Jewry Counter-Circus
to confirm their citizenship with- guay of two prominent Russian
Allon said "of the 11 accused, nine provided competition to the open- Union for their homeland in
out going to the embassy. But Jews allegedly sent by the Moscow
names are known and seven of ing of the Moscow Circus on Ice Israel.
at the same time they are be- authorities to counteract protests
them are undoubtedly Jewish. But at New York City's Madison Square
Cancellation by the Soviet gov-
even if there is a number of non- Garden Center. The Counter-Cir- ernment of a tour next May in the ing forcibly prevented by the against the mistreatment of Jews
Jews among the accused — and cus, entitled "Judaism Under Ice" United States by the Bolshoi Bal- Soviet authorities from appear- in the Soviet Union.
our hearts bleed for them as well and staged by the Student Strugele let and opera troupe was re- ing.
Speakers at the fourth plenary
"You must not permit procedur- session of the Latin American Jew-
— nothing can disguise the out- for Soviet Jewry, detailed the garded here as "a flimsy excuse"
spokenly anti-Semitic character of plight of the Russian Jewish com- to avert possible defections by So- al red tape to place these two ish Congress meeting here warned
Americans in any further jeopardy that the two emissaries, Brig. Gen.
this trial."
munity.
viet artists.
Under the Soviet criminal code,
The Soviet Union has lodged a
Jacob Beam, U.S. ambassador to of their liberty. In view of Presi- David Dragunskv, the highest-
they could face the death penalty comPlaint with Secretary General the Soviet Union, was informed of dent Nixon's strong assurances, ranking Jew in the Soviet armed
if convicted.
U Thant over the invasion of the the cancellation while hg was pro- stated again in his news conference forces, and Prof. Pauline Gelman,
Allon claimed that the Soviet Soviet UN Mission premises Nov. testing the prevention of a visit to of Dec. 10 that our government is were intent on "propagandizing
regime was resorting to repression 29 by a "group of Zionist hooli- the embassy in Moscow of a Soviet taking appropriate steps to pre- and dividing the Jewish masses."
and intimidation because it failed gans." In a letter to Thant, Ambas- Jew, Leonid Rigerman, who is vent any reoccurrence of the type They urged Jewish leaders to "op-
in other methods to force Jews to sador Jacob Malik, permanent rep- seeking to establish U.S. citizen- of incident involving the Lithu- pose this maneuver."
The Russian visitors denied in
assimilate. He said the Soviet gov- resentative of the Soviet Union to ship. Later, Izvestia charged the anian seaman, it would be highly
ernment claimed that only a small the UN, demanded that the United cancellation was caused by the inconsistent for you as secretary Uruguay that an anti-Jewish cam-
fraction of Russian Jews wanted States Mission and U.S. authorities actions of "Zionist extremists" of state to place any further tech- paign exists in the USSR. Asked
to go Israel. "If that is so. why take "all necessary steps" to "pro- who threatened "the personal nical obstacles in the way of ef- about the arrests of more than 30
then is this small fraction denied tect" the Soviet Mission "from sim- safety of Soviet citizens." Dr. forts by the Rigermans who are Russian Jews for allegedly plotting
permission to emigrate? Why does ilar raids by bandits and intrusions Isaac Franck, executive vice presi- American citizens to secure the to hijack a Soviet airliner last
protection of the United States.
spring, Gen. Dragunsky replied at
Kosygin not keep his promise?" he by hostile elements."
dent of the Jewish Community
"American and world public a press conference that they were
asked.
Malik. charged New York pol- Council of Greater Washington,
In related developments, the Is- ice witilillaxity. On Nov. 29 a said "The real reason for the opinion would be shocked by any not arrested as. Jews but "as ban-
rael Students Association called on group of youths of the World canceling probably has gone on further delay in this matter and
Isaac Goldenberg, chairman of
Pope Paul and leaders of the West- Union of Jewish Students entered tour outside of Russia one or more the Soviet Union would no doubt
interpret such inaction as a sign the WJC's executive warned at the
ern Powers to protest against the the mission to protest Soviet
of the troupe have de- of weakness and apathy by our session that "our first priority is
Leningrad Trials and intervene treatment of Jews. The young members
fected. They are afraid of losing
with Soviet authorities.
people Later assembled on the more people. Moreover, there nev- government, belying President Nix- to save our brethren in Russia
which today is the prime source
Classes at the Hebrew Universi- steps of the Park East Synagogue er has been any violence in con- on's own assurance."
Rigerman's citizenship claim is of anti-Semitiim." A resolution
ty were suspended for two hours across the street front the mis- nection with the Bolshoi. There
based
on
the
fact
that
his
mother
was adopted urging the Soviet gov-
for a demonstration of solidarity sion for a further demonstration. have been legitimate community
is American-born and his father
with the accused in Leningrad.
In Buenos Aires, an extraordin- protests against the oppression of is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He ernment to cancel the trials and
an appeal was made to world
Rabbi Herschel Scheeler, chair- ary convention of the Federation Soviet Jewry."
has lived In Russia all of his life. opinion in this connection.
man of the Americas Jewish of Ziordst Students of Latin Ameri-

,

Conference ma Soviet Jewry,

oat

ca included representatives from

Dr. Franck said if the Soviets
were referring to the pre-Thanks-

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, Decarbar 11,1970-45