The Zionist Organization of Detroit announced this week that it has contracted
to bring the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra here for a concert Oct. 7 at the Masonic
Auditorium. Zubin Mebta, the orchestra's famous director, will conduct the concert.
Dr. Joel Hamburger, retiring ZOD president, and Dr. Jack Greenberg. incoming presi-
dent, who made arrangements for the Detroit event, stated that this will not be a fund-
raising event—the annual Balfour Concert on Nov. 19 will remain ZOD's sole campaign
for funds for Zionist activities here and in Israel—and that the Israel Philharmonic's
appearance is being made possible as a public service. "Popular prices will Prevail
to enable 5.000 Detroiters to attend this notable event on Oct. 7," Drs. Hamburger and
Greenberg said.
ZOD Brings Israel
Philharmonic Here
for Oct. 7 Concert
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Page 4
May 26, '1972
Stalemate Seen in Middle East
America's Voice in USSR Jews'
Behalf Heard at Moscow Summit
America's voice is being heard at the Kremlin in behalf of Soviet Jews who are now pleading for just cultural rights at home and the right
to unrestricted emigration to Israel. The 1,200,000 signatures from Christians and Jews that were appended to the petitions to President Nixon to
raise the issue with the Soviet leaders appear certain to have their effect.
As the Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent, Joseph Polakoff, indicates in his cabled reports from the Moscow summit conference, the
Russians are sensitive to the situation, both by the distribution of Soviet propaganda material on the Jewish question and the acknowledgement of
Jewish interest in the status of Soviet Jewry and the Middle East situation.
While there is firm adherence by both the U. S. and the USSR to established policies in the Middle East, a stalemate may assure continuation
of the cease fire on the Israel-Egyptian border. Soviet Jewry's concerns remain in a state of uncertainty.
In this connection, she said, the JDL "obstructed" binational cultural
By JOSEPH POLAKOFF
relations. She also mentioned a bomb exploded in the Chicago opera house.
Chief of Jewish Telegraphic Agency Washington Bureau
However, she did not pin that incident specifically on the JDL.
MOSCOW (JTA) — Mme. Ekaterina Furtseva, the Soviet Union's
Theodore Shabad, veteran correspondent in Moscow for the New
minister of culture, on Wednesday derided suggestions for reopening the
York Times, evoked her Yiddish theater comment. Shabad observed that
Yiddish drama theater in Moscow and for allowing the Soviet Jews to have
some Jews who want to leave the Soviet Union are motivated in that way
schools in which to teach their children Yiddish or Hebrew.
because there are no longer broad opportunities in the Soviet Union for
The English translation of her remarks was drowned out by laughter
development of Jewish national culture, compared, say, to the situation in
and some applause among the audience of about 350 media persons. It
had to be repeated by her interpreter, a Jew, at the request of the Jewish
the 1920s and 1930s when such Jewish culture developed in the USSR.
Telegraphic Agency.
To this, the minister of culture advised, "This is not a new question
When she charged, near the end of her response to the question on
for us and is completely contrary to reality. We have an autonomous Jew-
schools, that "a Jew" threw the bomb that killed the secretary in the New
ish region, Birobidjan."
York office of impresario Sol Hurok (promoter of Soviet cultural attrac-
Birobidjan is in eastern Siberia, the length of Asia away from the
tions in the U. S.), the JTA correspondent stood up and asked, "How do
Soviet centers of culture and Jewish population. Its Jewish element has
you know he was a Jew?"
so deteriorated that it has been described as neither Jewish nor autonomous.
"According to the American press, the bomb was planted by Jews,"
Mrs. Furtseva also pointed to the Yiddish newspaper, Sovietishe
Mme. Furtseva said. "Mr. Hurok visited us and put his finger on it. He
Heimland,
in Moscow and creative Jewish artists in Moscow. She said
named the Jewish Defense League. I met him and, please believe me, he
"The question is often asked why there is no theater in Yiddish. In Moscow
did not lie. If the actual criminals have not been found, it is not to the
we don't have a theater in Ukrainian. No one asks why not. If we try to re-
honor of the United States."
open a Yiddish theater in Moscow, we will have to supply simultaneous
Earlier, she blamed the JDL by name for the cancellation of the
translation. Many Jews do not speak the language at all. I'm sure this is
Bolshoi Ballet tour of the U. S. early last year." The Bolshoi was "all set
not the motivation of many Jews." she continued. "Many Jews are busy
to go" in 1971, but it was canceled because of the "many unfriendly acts
(Continued on Page 10)
in the U. S.," Mme. Furtseva said.
Soviet Jews' Plight Continues. ..Georgian Jew, Denied Return
Entry, Comes Back to Israel. .. Activist Petitioners Arrested
TEL AVIV (JTA)—A Jewish immigrant from Soviet
Georgia who left Israel last week hoping to return to the
USSR, was back again Sunday. He told newsmen that
he had spent the last five days in Vienna trying unsuccess-
fully to be readmitted to the Sovic4 Union
Kasmani Shwilli, who is single, said the Russian
consul in Vienna told him: "If you Wa.t. in . - 11(21".
years you will not get permission to return to Russia."
He said he made up his mind then to go back to Israel
despite "the difficulties it had for me." He said there
were five other Georgian Jews in Vienna in the same
predicament but they were ashamed to return to Israel.
Three planeloads of Jewish emigres from Eastern
Europe, mainly from Russia, landed Sunday at Lydda
Airport. Extra absorption ministry personnel were on
hand to process them. Some of the new arrivals were sent
to hotels pending the availability of flats. One of the
immigrants was Zalman Ginsberg, of Leningrad. a rela-
tive of President Zalman Shazar.
•
•
•
NEW YORK (JTA)—At least six Jewish activist lead-
ers were arrested in Moscow and sentenced to 10-day
jail terms for "anti-social activities," the National Con-
ference on Soviet Jewry reported. The Conference said
its sources in Moscow linked the arrests to a petition to
President Nixon which was signed by 300 Soviet Jews
and presented Friday to the U. S. Embassy in Moscow.
All six were signers of the petition, and one of them,
Roman Rutman, claimed that he was one of the or-
ganizers of the petition campaign.
The 300 signatories of the petition were from Mos-
cow, Kiev, Riga, Kovno, and eight other Russian cities.
Twenty-three more Soviet Jewish activists-20 'in
Wilna and three in Kharkov—were warned by the au-
thorities not to go to Moscow during President Nixon's
stay, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry reported.
SSSJ also reported that two more Jews, Valentine Prussa-
kov and Vladimir Prestin—making a total of at least eight
—have been arrested and sentenced to 10-day jail terms
in Moscow for "anti-social" activities.
Two family reunions involving Soviet Jews took place
Monday when two planes landed at Kennedy Airport on
direct flights from Moscow, it was reported by United
Hias Service, the worldwide Jewish migration agency.
Bertha Braun arrived together with her 20-year-old
daughter, Maria, to join her sister Helen ltzkowitz of
Brooklyn, N. Y., ending a separation of more than 21)
years. Mrs. Braun, a widow, comes from Vinogradnv, a
city in the Carpathian region. Maria plans to continue her
schooling here. The newcomers will be assisted in their re-
settlement by the New York Association for New Ameri-
cans.
Herman and Laya Braun (no relationship to the
other arriving family) and their 15-year-old son, Peter,
will be reunited with Morris Braun of Bridgeport, Conn ,
who had not seen his brother since they were sent to
different concentration camps during World War II. A
third brother resides in Los Angeles. The family will be
resettled in Bridgeport. Conn., with the aid of the local
Jewish Family Service.
An older son, Josef, who was unable to leave directly
for the U. S. with his parents, has already been assisted
in reaching Rome where he is being processed for
U. S immigration under the U. S attorney general's
parole authority. This family comes from Chust, in the
Carpathian region.
•
•
•
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Raiza Palatnik, having con-
cluded a seven-day hunger strike in a Russian prison
last Friday, is being overworked despite being very ill
and unable to see, it was reported by her sister, Katya,
who on May 17 began a hunger strike near the Soviet
Embassy. Katya Palatnik, who spoke with her parents
in Odessa by telephone. said they told her that her sister
refused to work last Saturday—Lenin Day—and was given
seven days' solitary confinement, during which she has
been allowed only water and only a chair to sleep in.
Katya Palatnik and Dr. Michael Eppelman, who are
staging a joint hunger strike here, sent a telegram to
Nixon asking him to help release Balza Palatnik and
help effect visas for Dr. Eppelman's wife and daughter.