Revealing Statistics About USSR Jewry Decline in population and use of Yiddish shown in JTA demographic study .. . Page 52 Erev Shavuot Ruminations About Devotions, Synagogues Amos Elon's 'The Israelis' JEWISH NEWS Confrontation by Israel to World Peril Commentary Page 2 Vol. LIX. No. 10 `Israel With a Smile' Newest in Hebrew Conversation . Series . Page 52 Michigan Weekly Review of Jewish News Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper — Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle e ° 27 17515 W. 9 Mile Rd., Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 356-8400 $8.00 Per Year; This Issue Pragmatism, marks important volume on the Israeli 'Fathers and Sons' . . . Review on Page 2. Courageous Mich. Prosecutor Battles for Russian Jewry And End to 'Mildly' Political Schemes Editorials Page 4 25c May 21, 1971 Mrs. Meir Again Rejects Rogers Plan; Pullback Denied by Dayan Zand's Visa Withdrawn, Must Wait for New Action Friday; Senators Ask for - His Release A report received Tuesday night by Prof. Herbert Paper of the department of languages at the University of Michigan, from Prof. Bernard Lewis of the University of London, that Prof. Mikhail Zand again was humiliated and was advised to go to a hospital instead of pressing for an exit visa to Israel, inspired new action in behalf of the Russian Jewish scholar. Scores of cables were sent appealing for his release. Senators Robert Griffin and Philip Hart of Michigan and Man Cranston of California cabled the U.S. Embassy in Moscow urging intercession for Zand. The State Department Russian desk is on the alert, and other national leaders joined in efforts to provide assistance to Prof. Zand, his family and 20 others who had their exit visas canceled soon. after they had been issued by the USSR. An urgent plea also was sent to Ambassador Jacob Beam in Moscow on Thursday by Senators Griffin, Cranston and Jacob Javits. LONDON (JTA)—Soviet officials are resorting to stalling tactics on the issuance of a new visa to Prof. Mikhail I. Zand to replace the one they revoked last Friday only hours after it was issued, it was learned here Wednesday. Zand, a specialist in Oriental languages and an activist for Jewish emigration rights, was told to apply for a new visa on Tuesday. When he showed up at the Moscow Ovir (visa office) Tuesday he was told to come back Friday. Zand learned that his visa had been canceled after he had rushed to make travel arrangements for himself and his family to Israel via Vienna. He was told by officials that complaints of "undesirable activities" were made against him, apparently the result of his conversations with Western visitors, and that he could not leave until they were investigated. Last week Zand seemed confident he would get a new visa on Tuesday. He sold his belongings and re- nounced his Soviet citizenship in anticipation of going to Israel and was reportedly told he was now officially a "stateless person." (A cable urging intervention on behalf of Zand was sent from Los Angeles to the president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences by Dr. Albert Gottschalk, president of Hebrew Union College and other members of the Southern California academic community. The Soviet academician was asked to use his good - offices to help "this learned gentle scholar and his family to be allowed to leave for Israel.") A verdict is expected today in the Leningrad triat of nine Jews • 'accused of plotting to hijack a Soviet airliner last June and of anti- (Continued on Page 38) JERUSALEM (JTA)—Premier Golda Meir said in the Knesset Wednesday that her government continues to reject the Rogers Plan calling for Israel's return to its pre-June 1967 boundaries, and has made that clear to all U.S. representatives with whom it has - had contact recently and to United Nations Mediator Gunnar V. Jarring. Mrs. Meir spoke in reply to a question by Mordecai Ben Porat, an MK representing the Labor alignment. There was no indication when Mrs. Meir would deliver her report to the .Knesset on her recent talks in Jerusalem with Secretary of State William Rogers and Assistant Secretary Joseph Sisco. She Elrom's Abductors had been expected to make the report directly after Warned by Turkey Rogers' departure but it was postponed to a later, as yet unannounced, date. (Detroiter Max M. Fisher, confidant of President Nixon, on Wednesday reiterated his confidence that the White House is anxious for an early solution of the Middle East problem without harm to Israel. Contrary to frequent- ly expressed views in the press and in some reports from Israel, he told The Jewish News he believes that Egyptian President Sadat would welcome peace and that Rogers and Sisco are striving towards exerting the added influ- ence upon him to that end). Replying to questions on tht- situation of Soviet Jews, Mrs. Meir said the Israel governMent was aware of numer- ous cases of physical injury to Jews who had applied for visas to emigrate to Israel. She said there were also many cases of abusive anonymous letters received by Jews seek- ing emigration. She said that when complaints were made to the authorities, the Jews were told "we do not deal with anonymous letters." Mrs. Meir said her government was doing all it could to bring these incidents to the attention of "those who can help." EPHRAIM ELROM Abductors of Ephraim Elrom, Israel's consul general in Istan- bul, Turkey, were warned by the Turkish government that the revolutionary guerrillas would be executed unless the Israeli is released. Many arrests have already been made to counter- act the threat that Elrom would be killed on Thursday. (Story on Page 5) Dayan Denies Making Pullback Proposals TEL AVIV (JTA)—Defense Minister Moshe Dayan has denied that he made any specific proposals to U. S. Assistant Secretary Joseph J. Sisco for an Israeli pullback from the Suez Canal. Premier Golda Meir's office also denied reports that any such Israeli proposal was con- veyed to the •U. S. Press reports Friday said that Dayan had suggested to Sisco a week earlier that Israel withdraw about 18.6 miles from the east bank of the canal as part of an interim agreement to reopen the waterway. He (Continued on Page 10) U.S. District Attorneys Ask USSR to End Secret Trials; Genesee Prosecutor R.F. Leonard Initiates Nationwide Defense Campaign As a result of the visit to the Soviet Union of two of s members, the National District Attorneys Association has called on the Soviet procurator general to put an end to the secret trials and incommunicado imprisonment of Jews seeking exodus. Genesee County Prosecut- ing Attorney Robert F. Leon- ard, who spent 16 days in the Soviet Union along with New York District Attorney Eu- gene Gold, was in Detroit Monday for a Jewish News interview, as well as a lunch- eon coordinated by the Jew- ish Community Council. (Among the groups repre- sented at the luncheon were the National Council of Negro Women, Detroit Council of Churches, UAW-International, Detroit Roundtable of Chris- tians and Jews and the Co- Leonard ordinating Council on .Human Rights.) Leonard said the letter to Roman Rudenko.in Moscow represents the unanimous opinion of the National District Attorneys Association, comprised of prosecuting attorneys of virtually every city and municipality in the U.S. Although the letter does not refer to Soviet anti-Semit- ism by name, it does call foi "elimination of racial and re- ligious persecution whatever its form and wherever it may arise." Signed by William B. Randall, president of the as- sociation, the letter expresses concern that the present trial in Leningrad is "even less public" than that held late last year. Some 23 Soviet Jews arrested since last June are on, or await, trial. Further, the letter requests that a member of the asso- ciation be allowed to attend the trials as an observer. Leonard, a Catholic, and Gold, a Jew, met with high officials and with the families of imprisoned Jews on their journey to Kishinev, Moscow, Riga and Leningrad. (They also visited Kiev, but merely to establish their status as "tourists.") Insistent that the issue is one of justice for all men, . not only Jews, Leonard is prepared to carry his message to many other cities, because what he sees in the Soviet Union today is "a genocide wrapped in a veil of legality." "We're getting the same, indifferent response," he added, "that we saw during the Second World War'in Nazi Germany." He called the Leningrad trial "phony," and said that if the evidence had been substantiated and the prisoners confessed, there would have been no need for a secret trial. "There are three points the Soviets are trying, to get across," Leonard said. "First, they know the world is repulsed by the word 'hijacking.' Second, they imply that the prisoners confessed when they did not. Third, they are saying that Israel is involved. If they can successfully convey these ideas, they have won their propaganda cam- paign. And when the world press prints these ideas, it is promulgating the lie." Among the most significant portions of the 39-page report written by Leonard and Gold on their return was that relating to a meeting with Mikhail Zand, the noted professor of Oriental languages who had been jailed, drop- ped from hiS academic post and threatened with other harassments for wanting to emigrate to Israel. Despite many reports to the contrary, Zand believes there is a rebirth of religion in the Soviet intellectual community because "every man needs something to feed his soul and . .. in this search for truth and to meet the need to feed his soul, man ultimately. reaches God." (Continued on Page 6)