Learns About Soviet Jewry at 1st Hand
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, July 16, 1971-29
N.Y. Museum to Admit
Elderly Without Charge
NEW YORK (JTA) — Free ad-
mission for senior citizens at the
N.Y. Jewish Museum will hence-
forth be available Mondays through
strations are important because Fridays during regular museum
it's important to get into the hours. All visitors will be required
to pay the regular admission fee
newspapers."
Schiff strongly encourages tour- of 50 cents on Sundays.
ism to the Soviet Union. "The peo-
ple I talked to said their only con-
tact with the West is through tour-
ists."
Out of it all, Schiff has come
away with a deep sense of in-
volvement in the problems of So-
viet Jewry. What started as a
good will tour has become a mis-
sion for another young American
Jew.
Detroiter Lives Spy Thriller in USSR
By CHARLOTTE DUBIN
Were the stakes not so high,
Steve Schiff's adventures in the
Soviet Union would read like a
comic opera.
During the day, as part of a
good will study group, the 23-year-
old Detroiter listened to the gov-
ernment straight men expound on
Soviet justice.
During the evening, however, he
and a companion heard a quite
different version from those who
know all about Soviet justice:
Soviet Jews.
Schiff, son of the Sam Schiffs
of Deep Run Rd., Birmingham,
'spent three weeks recently on a
tour of three Soviet cities—Mos-
cow, Leningrad and Vilna—in the
company of three other students
and two professors and their wives.
Steve had just graduated from
Wayne State University with a
major in sociology.
'Unknown to the others, one
young man on the tour had been
supplied in New York with Hebrew
literature—the book "Elef Milim"
("1,000 Words") used by begin-
ning students, and articles on Zeev
Jabotinsky• Plus two tape record-
ers. And a list of Jews whose re-
latives were imprisoned for "anti-
Soviet slander."
On the flight to Russia, the
young New Yorker confronted
Schiff with a barrage of ques-
tions about Soviet Jewry—Do
you know anything about them?
What do you think about their
plight?
Schiff could honestly say that
he knew little about Soviet Jewry,
only that he supported their right
to live, and to leave. A lot of what
he had heard, Schiff admitted, he
dismissed as anti-Soviet propa-
ganda.
But the die was cast. Bob Brown
drew Steve Schiff into his confid-
ence. Their trip became a tour by
day, a mission by night—all with-
out the knowledge of their com-
panions.
Bugged apartments and eleva-
tors, a secret rendezvous in the
park, tails by the secret service
and "underground" meetings at
which no words were exchanged
except by a hurried message on a
child's magic slate — this is the
stuff of which spy novels are
made. But such is the reality of
Soviet Jews who desire to main-
tain their identity. And such was
the reality to which Bob and Steve
were subjected.
During their tour, Schiff :and'
Brown Were-giVen filnisi and
microfilm---40i-
docu
. _ e'ordocument-
- ing the trials of Soviet Jews-L-to
get to Israel throUgh • a contact.
Destroyed Forest
Will Be Replanted
AFULA — During the coming
season the Jewish 'National Fund
will plant a forest covering 30,000
dunams (7,500 acres) in the Hills
of Ephraim along the green line,
Noah Pelled of the JNF district of-
fice declared.
The area was earmarked for this
purpose by the Mandatory Govern-
ment some 30 years ago, and hun-
dreds of thousands of trees were
planted. But they were not protect-
ed against flocks of goats from
nearby villages; and, as a result,
those trees were distroyed.
The JNF forestry department has
planted 2,400,000 pine and eucalyp-
tus trees in Judea-Samaria since
the Six Day War, he said. Thanks
to advanced planting techniques,
the percentage of saplings which
have struck root is about 90, as
compared with the 20 per cent
average rate the Jordan govern-
ment's f or e s t r y department
achieved in the same area.
The latter promised to deliver it
within two months.
Few incidents had as much
pathos as Schiff's meeting with a
woman "who looked about 60" at
the Moscow Synagogue. As it
t u r n e d out, she was only 35.
Divorced for 10 years, "she and
her 1-1-year-old son had applied
to go to Israel," S c h if f said.
"She lost her job, and her son
was unofficially kicked out of
school. But finally she paid the
1,800 rubles and got a permit for
them to leave the country. She
sold her furniture and sent half
to Israel. And she relinquished
their citizenship.
"On the day before they were
to leave, the government said
her son couldn't go with her to
Israel because his father had to
give permission. But the father
was afraid to give his permis-
sion: he might lose his job.
"When she came home and told
her son," Schiff said, "he pleaded
that she go to Israel. He said he
would lie down on the railroad
track and kill himself because it
was his fault that she couldn't go."
She asked that Schiff publicize
her name and address. It is Elena
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Legudovna Mondrzhak, and her
son Leonid. They live at i-yj Bas-
mannyj Pereulok, 5/20 kz97, Mos-
cow B-66.
Schiff found in the homes he
visited an emphasis on Jewish
tradition, even though few Jews
attend synagogue services.
In the Vilna synagogue, Schiff
said, "the newest prayerbook is
30 years old and they have one
tallis. The shames (sexton) is a
KGB agent.
"On some holidays, they (gov-
ernment officials) close the syna-
gogue. When the people com-
plained, the authorities said, 'You
don't know when the holidays are
anyway, so what do you care if
we close it up?' " It was pointed
out that the Jews have no Jewish
calendars to remind them of the
holiday dates.
(Brown learned while he was in
Vilna that the amateur Yiddish
theater of that city has voluntarily
disbanded because its members
thought it would be hypocritical
to continue under the authorities'
restrictions.
(Brown's source said 40 mem-
bers of the 100-member group
had withdrawn for this reason,
and 30 emigrated. The remain-
ing 30 deeMed the troupe dead.)
Compared to the Vilna syna-
gogue; the Leningrad building was
"quite nice," said Schiff, but there
were few worshipers — only the
elderly. ,
Moscow was the only city in
which young people gathered, al-
beit • outside. And while they
talked, a KGB man made the
rounds from group to group.
Schiff found a "real defiant
pride" among those he met. One
fellow to whom he gave a Mogen
David pin wore it openly on his
shirt.
"They told me that Rabbi Levin
(Yehuda Leib Levin, chief rabbi
of Moscow) was forced to come
to the United States or they (the
government) would close down his
synagogue. The younger ones un-
derstand why he did it, but they
thought he should have stood up
and refused."
Schiff said it is this spirit
of defiance that has made Meir
Kahane somewhat of a folk hero
among young Jews in Russia.
"They feel he's the only one
doing anything that gets on page
one of the New York Times. I
don't agree with bombings, but
I suppose if Bnai Brith would
get out in the streets and demen-'
strate there'd be no need for
bombings. Nonviolent demon-
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