Communist Congress Ignores Migration
Demand; Sop to Two Jewish Apologists
By MURRAY ZUCKOFF
identified with all these terms. asking for the release of 39 Jews
JTA News Editor
Delegates old enough to recall in Russian prisons on charges of
The most incredible feature of earlier exhortations against bour- Zionist activity. A spokesman :or
the 24th Congress of the Soviet geois ideas could probably still the embassy said it could no longer
Communist Party was that the Jews hear Andrei Zhdanov, the former be expected to provide a special
were a non-people during the 10- Communist Party chief hatchet messenger service for Israelis who
day conclave. The congress ended man who was given the job in want to contact Soviet authorities.
with no indication that the Kremlin the early 1950s to project the
A large group of Soviet Jews
leaders allowed even so much as official line on art, philosophy landed at Lydda Airport Monday
a whisper to be heard about the and science, assail "homeless morning. They included sever:-1
condition and demands of its Jew- cosmopolitans," "rootless cosmo- more families from the Georgia -i
ish citizens. The absence of any politans," "bourgeois ideologists" Republic who signed the famou3
reference to the top-priority de- a n d "western cosmopolites." letter appealing to Premier Gold.
mand of many Soviet Jews that Those terms, in those days, were Meir for emigration aid. They sai(
they be permitted to emigrate—a signal attacks on Zionism and that only two of the 18 familie;
demand supported by Jews and Jews in the Soviet Union.
that signed the letter remain it
non-Jews throughout the world and
There were other signs at the Russia and their prospects foi
by leading segments of many West- congress that the Soviet leadership leaving are doubtful. One of the
*II Communist Party spokesmen was taking a harder line against Monday arrivals was Rafael Shvilli,
otably the British, French, Italian emigration in downgrading of son of Shabtai Shvilli who arrived
and Australian—casts a long dark Soviet Premier Alexsei Kosygin. here last week. He said he had
shadow over the future of emigra- Aside from the inner party squab- waited two years for his exit per-
tion.
bles and machinations that played mit. One of four families arriving
The total silence indicates that a role in making the number two from Walga, Estonia, said they had
the Kremlin bureaucrats may now leader number three in the new waited 15 years. They reported
feel they have a freer hand in hierarchy, Kosygin was also the that all 16 Jewish families in that
determining their policy toward official who, in 1968 in Paris, town have applied for exit visas.
the Jews, undeterred by the criti- pledged that any Jew wishing to
Emigrants from Odessa reported
cism of foreign Communist parties. leave the USSR would be permit- growing anti - Semitism in that
The Soviet leaders can now point ted to do so. Can one discount that Black Sea city. Emigrants from
out that no one—at least publicly— this indiscreet pledge might have Riga reported that three Jews
deviated from the official Soviet played a role in his downgrading? facing trial in Leningrad have
policy toward the Jews and that,
Kosygin's demotion can play a been transferred to Riga to testify
therefore, there is now tacit agree- two-fold role in the Soviet emigra- against four Jews who were ex-
ment to limit, if not halt, future tion policy: a warning that his pected to go on trial there Thurs-
emigration.
pledge can no longer be binding day.
The absence of any references on Soviet policy and as a form of
It was learned that Soviet au-
to emigration, the pending trials intimidation of those Jews who uti- thorities may soon force emigrat-
and Zionism per se, was all the lized his promise as a basis on ing Jews to pay for the educa-
more incredible since these issues which they could campaign for tion they received at institutions
created widespread debate in many emigration rights by appealing to of higher learning. Reliable
Western Communist Party circles his authority. The congress, how- sources in Vilna, contacted by
in the months preceding the open- ever, did make a concession — telephone, told the newspaper
ing of the Congress.
actually a sop—to Soviet Jews by Yediot Ahronot that prospective
It was also incredible in view of appointing two Jewish apologists emigrants may soon have to pay
[ - the measures the Soviet authori- for the Soviet Union to posts on $1,100 for each academic year.
ties took to try to counter the con- the 81-member Central Auditing Jews holding degrees which re-
ference on world Jewry in Brussels Commission, a watchdog group of
at least four years at a
just two months before and the
:university or polytechnic insti-
: precautionary measures taken by less prestige than tie party's cen- tute, would, according to these-
tral committee:
_Soviet officials throughout the 10
The appointees were Col. Gen. sourees, have to pay at least
-,r . d6s to prevent Jews from staging David Dragunsky and Vladiinir J. $4,400, compared to $990 now re-
protest demonstrations in Moscow. Peller, a collective farm chairman quired for an exit permit. Ap-
An aniplieit policy on the Jew- from the Republic of Birobidjan parently, Soviet authorities feel
ish tfirestlon was _developed by •a where some :15;000 'Of _a total popu- that Jews who wish to emigrate
numbk of speakerS which, while lation of 160,000 are Jewish. Named are not entitled to free education
avoiding- any mention of the Jew- to full membership to the central at the expense of the Soviet
ish question, emigration rights, committee was Nikolai V. Goldin, Union which can be utilized else-
,,. _ the trial's- and Zionism, emerged ' a name usually Jewish in the Soviet where.
as the official line of the ,-eoft.: Union but about whom there is no
Sources in Minsk said that Jew-
`7- ... ' gress. This policy was _developed:,.._ information. The only other known ish applicants were told recently
_ -. , around a major issue: the-denun- -Jewish members on the central that they would receive exit per-
N'si--: ciation of bourgeois' nationalist
committee are Veniamin E. Dym- mits "within a few days" after
_
::XT'ideas. Very early iri the congres
shits and Chakovsky. Neither has which they would have to leave
sessions, - Leonid I. Brezlinev,': been identified wiith Jews. But the Russia within three days.
-
Communist pkrt y, secretary, most ominous development emerg- State Dept. Officials Pledge
launched an attack_ on disSidents ing from the congress was not Continued Diplomatic
in the field of creative arts.
merely the rinitine attack by Efforts for Soviet Jews
Pyotr Y. Shelest, a member of Brezhnev on Israel and his pledge
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Officials
- the 11-man ruling Politburo and to aid- Russia's "Arab friends," but of the State Department have
Ukrainian party- chief, warned that the timingof the shipment - by the `pledged to continue their diplo-
"any fuzziness in ideology" -must Soviet Union-of its most advanced matic efforts to win the easing of
be fought and rebuked "the ideol- MIG fighter planes to Egypt.
Soviet restrictions on Jewish reli-
ogists of imperialism" who are Finnish Embassy Refuses
gious life and emigration. This
"waging an anti-Soviet, anti-Com- to Serve as Middleman
statement was made here in a
munist campaign."
meeting between a leadership dele-
for Anti-Soviet Petitions
Viktor V. Grishin, appointed in
TEL AVIV (JTA)—The Finnish gation of Zeirei Agudath Israel of
1967 by Brezhnev as Moscow city Embassy here, which has repre- America and Herbert Okun, assist-
party leader, charged that "im- sented Soviet interests in Israel ant director of the State Depart-
perialist propaganda" was trying since the Six-Day War, has decided ment's Soviet desk, and other State
to undermine the Soviet people, to stop serving as a middleman Department officials. The Ortho-
especially the youth, with "bour- for anti-Soviet petitions. The em- dox youth organization, which had
geois ideology and morals." Inte- bassy refused to accept a petition been invited by the State Depart-
restingly, Grishin was handpicked last Thursday signed by students, ment, told Okun that they and "the
b y B
rez h
nev to succeed Nikolai G.
vast majority of religious Jewish
Yegorychev as Moscow city leader
youth in the United States (are)
`Freedom
Packages'
Sent
Me hen Yegorychev was dismissed
vehemently opposed" to extremist
'ler differences with the Kremlin All Embassies in Washington
actions on behalf of the Jews of
- on Middle East policy.
BALTIMORE (JTA)—In a Pass- Russia.
,i- Many speakers at the congress over season effort to solicit world
The department officials in turn
, also expressed the view that there support for Soviet Jewry, Balti- stressed their readiness to help
is no nationality problem in the more area teen-agers delivered any Jew seeking to emigrate to
Soviet Union except for abortive "Freedom Packages" to all em- the U.S. and promised to speak
attempts at stimulation from bassies in Washington, it was an- up at international bodies for the
) abroad. Aleksandr Chakovsky, the nounced by the Baltimore Jewish rights of Soviet Jews.
Jewish editor of Literaturnaya Community Center which organ-
The Jewish Community Council
Gazeta, and a member of the ized the project. The Center pack- of Greater Washington is publish-
party's central committee, told aged wine. matzot, a Hagada and ing and distributing a newsletter,
the congress: "We can understand letters expressing concern over "Undercover," containing reports
the opposition of an honest artist the treatment of Jews in the Soviet about Jews in the Soviet Union.
to a bourgeois society and state Union and the denial by Soviet
The current issue reports the
based on violence, oppression and authorities of their emigration ' arrest of 39 of 111 Jews who sought
lies. but we cannot tolerate the rights. The youngsters delivered to petition the Supreme Soviet to
attempts of anti-Communists to the packages on April 13. But release Jews imprisoned since
spread this fraudulent view equally first, members of the Passover June 1970 and not yet brought
to the opposing system, on the basis Youth Mobilization for Soviet to trial. The 39 have been charged
of which social justice exists."
Jewry notified each embassy of with "hoodiganism." Two of those
The word Zionism wasn't men- the proposed visit and express-. arrested, Yuri Titlov and Lena
tioned once in the attacks against hope that the packages will be Stoeva, were immediately commit-
bourgeois ideas, but in the lexi- accepted. The Soviet Embassy was ted to a mental institution, accord-
con of the Kremlin, Zionism is on the delivery list.
ing to "Undercover."
-
1
.
THE DETROIT JEWISH MEWS
Friday, April 16, 1971-19
100,000 Sign Appeal for Soviet Jews,
Dispatched to Moscow Congress
NEW YORK (JTA) —A total
of 100,000 signatures for Soviet
Jewry were gathered on petitions
by the Center for Russian Jewry
and dispatched to delegates to the
24th Congress of the Soviet Com-
mnist Party in Moscow. The cen-
ter was aided in its effort by its
youth wing, the Student Struggle
for Soviet Jewry; the American
Jewish Congress; Workmen's
Circle; the Jewish Labor Com-
mittee; Farband; and interested
groups and individuals.
The scheduled two-week signa-
ture-seeking campaign officially
ended March 28, but petitions are
still coming in from around the
country.
Three-quarters of the petitions,
weighing 60 pounds, were flown
to Moscow from here; the re-
mainder will be sent by various
synagogues and Jewish Community
Councils.
Added to the main text of the
petition was a paragraph recalling
the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.'s endorsement of equal
rights for Soviet Jews. It was
signed by 19 civil rights leaders
and activists including Reps. Bella
S. Abzug and Herman Badillo,
New York Democrats; former At-
torney General Ramsey Clark;
former Supreme Court Justice Ar-
thur J. Goldberg; theologian Dr.
Abraham J. Heschel; Roy Innis,
director of the Congress of Racial
Equality; Mrs. Coretta Scott King,
Dr. King's widow; Ida Kaminska,
the actress; -Kivie Kaplan, presi-
dent of the NAACP; Roy Wilkins,
executive director of the NAACP;
and the Rev.- William Sloane Cof-
fin, junior chaplain at Yale Uni-
versity.
A New York congressman who
just returned from a visit to Rus-
sia reported that only 750 Jews
have been permitted to leave the
Soviet Union during the past three
months. Rep. Edward I. Koch,
Democrat-Liberal, told the JTA
that the figure of 750 was given
to him by a U.S. Embassy official
in Moscow last week. He agreed
that it was much less than the
figures contained in recent reports
from other sources which indi-
cated that more Jews have emi-
grated from Russia since the be-
ginning of 1971 than in all of 1970,
when 1,000 left. But the congress-
man pointed out that the U.S.
Embassy could only give an esti-
mate because no official figures
are available. Koch said that ac-
cording to Jews, Western news-
men and others he spoke to while
in Russia, at least 300,000 Soviet
Jews or 10 per cent of the Jewish
population, would emigrate if they
could.
Youths Protest Selling
of Russian Goods
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—The
city's largest largest department
store, the May Company, was
picketed by more than 200 stu-
dents protesting its selling of Rus-
sian vodka, caviar and furs and
its giving floor space to a travel
agency selling tours to the Soviet
Union. The demonstration was co-
ordinated by the Southern Cali-
fornia Council for Soviet Jews and
the California Students for Soviet
Jews.
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He that buildeth his house with
other men's money is like one that
gathereth himself stones against
winter. —Ecciesiasticus 21
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