State Dept. Tries 'Invisible Diplomacy' for Soviet Jews

(Continued from Page 1)
Department spokesman Char-
les Bray as "invisible diplo-
macy."
Last month, President Nix-
on met with 32 Jewish lead-

ers in New York and told when Bray was asked wheth -
them that the best approach er the State Department had
to the problem of Soviet been Informed of any policy
Jewry was to conduct quiet change by the Soviet Union
diplomacy rather than public regarding the head tax, he
confrontation. Wednesday, replied: "On this whole sub-
ject we have declined to
comment in any way in the
belief that invisible diplo-

Boris Smolor's

'Between You
... and Me'

Editor •In-Chief Emeritus, JTA
(Copyright 1972, JTA Inc,

THE SOVIET ISSUE: The Issue of Soviet treatment of
Jews is likely to stay with American Jewry for years to

Come.

macy will be more effec-
tive."

In response to another
question, Bray said he did
not know the source of press
reports that the Soviet Union
is setting aside the head tax
In the case of some Jews
who are receiving permis-
sion to emigrate.
State Department sources
told the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency Wednesday that the
department supplies a "rep-
resentation list" to the So-
viet Union of Soviet citizens
who wish to Join their near
relatives In the United States.
The sources said, however,
that it is not the purpose of
the representation to exempt
individuals from paying the
new Soviet exit visas. This

for alleged draft evasion
has had his sentence sus -
pended and will leave the
Soviet Union within 10 days
his American wife, Judy Sil- .
ver Shapiro, told the JTA
"I'm in ecstasy, in shock,
I don't 'believe it," said Mrs.
Shapiro, a Cincinnati socia l
worker who was married to
Gavriel in a religious cere-
mony at his Moscow horn
mony
last June but was denied a
civil marriage by the Soviet
authorities.
She told the JTA that she
was planning to fly to Vien-
na to meet her husband. She
said she got the good news
in a telephone conversation
with Shapiro.
Mrs. Shapiro, who has
been appealing to the U.S'.
government to intervene in
her husband's behalf since
she returned to this coun-
try after being ousted from
Russia, said "I suppose the
American government came
to my rescue at a very high

,

The issue could be mitigated greatly if Moscow would
lift its "ransom tax" on educated Jews who wish to emi-
grate. In this respect, President Nixon can now play a vital
role. lie is in a position to make it clear to the Soviet
rulers that he is under strong pressure on the part of the
Congress to seek the lifting of the "ransom tax."
The Soviet leaders seem to consider Nixon as having
all the chances of being re-elected to the White House. As
practical people, they know they will have to deal with him
It.vel." But, she added that
on many important occasions during the next four years.
she had no proof of that.
They also realize that they. owe him personally no small explanation was an effort to She said Gavriel told her
thanks for the recent huge grain trade with the U.S.
correct what they described that a fellow activist, Mark
•
• •
as an "accurate" report In Nashpitz, did not get per-
SECRET DIPLOMACY: It would be helpful these last the Israeli newspaper "Maa- mission to leave.
days before Election Day, if President Nixon came out riv Monday that the Kremlin
Shapiro, 28, a chemical
publicly with some hint indicating as to how far his efforts is using a secret list of names engineer graduate of Moscow
with Moscow on the issue of the "ransom tax" have gone. supplied by the State De- University, first applied for
The President will be doing a service to himself with those partment in selecting which an exit visa to go to Israel
Jews who, for the first time, are inclined to vote for a Soviet Jews should be ex- in February 1971.
Republican, and with members of both houses of Congress empted from paying the
Rutman, 38, who was a pro-
who are determined to see the uncivilized Soviet tax on taxes. According to Maariv, fessor of technical sciences
educated Jews canceled.
the list included the names at the Institute of Radio En-
President Nixon would, in this respect, also be doing of 110 prominent Jewish ac- gineering in Moscow, had ap-
something for his dedicated Jewish supporters — men tivists and was recently sub- plied for his visa in March
like Max M. Fisher—who are working diligently to secure mitted to Soviet Foreign 1971.
a maximum of Jewish votes for him in this election. He Minister Andrei Gromyko by
Kliachkin, who is in his
may not realize it, but he is putting these Jewish front- the State Department.
early 20s, is an aeronautical
fighters in a great predicament. They appear at public
Department sources told engineer. It is not known
meetings and at press conferences and emphasize President the JTA that a list is given when he applied for a visa.
Nixon's strong friendship with Israel, his outspoken oppo- periodically to the Soviet
In London, the Soviet Em-
sition against "quotas" in employment and education, and government of prospective bassy rejected a 6,000-sig-
his stand on other issues in which Jews, as American citi- emigrants whose applications nature petition for the re-
zens, are inclined to agree with him.
for departure to the U.S. lease from the USSR oil
While these pro-Nixon Jewish personalities create a have been delayed. Last Esther Markish and her son,
strong sentiment for Nixon among voters who never voted year, about 200 persons David.
for a Republican Presidential candidate, they are at the named in the list were allow-
Minister of State Joseph
same time handicaped when it comes to answering questions ed to leave for the U.S., and Godber replying to Greville
on intervention with the Soviets for the abolition of the in the first nine months of Jannner in the House of
ugly "ransom tax." They can only repeat Nixon's vague this year slightly more than Commons, said Britain had
indication that something is being done behind the scenes 300 of the listed Soviet citi- no responsibility in regard
in a diplomatic manner.
zens were allowed to leave to the Soviet head tax but
Because Mr. Fisher is considered the top Jewish leader, to join their relatives here, would "do everything they
many Jews take his word that Nixon is not indifferent to the sources said. A total of can in this difficult matter."
the Soviet "ransom tax." They have sufficient confidence 30 Soviet citizens entered An
i n t e r denominational
in Mr. Fisher; his appeal to them to vote for the re-election the U.S. as imigrants last Welsh committee for the re-
of Nixon is therefore not dimmed much by Nixon's secretive year. The JTA was inform- lease of Soviet Jewry was
policy on the "ransom tax" issue.
ed that about 60 per cent of formed, with patrons includ-
•
•
•
Soviet immigrants arriving ing the archbishops of Wales,
THE HISTORIC PRECEDENT: Jewish opposition to here are Jews.
Cardiff and LLandaff.
giving the "favored nation treatment" to the Soviet Union
According to the State De-
Jewish sources reported
in trade agreements should not be mistaken that Jews are partment, the latest list pre- that Prof. Aleksander
Voro-
opposed to American trade with the Soviet Union in general. sented to the Soviet govern- nel,
Moscow activist, has
This is not the case. They are not even opposed to granting ment contains slightly more again a been
refused an exit
the Soviets the privileges given to "favored nations" in than 500 names. It was given
tariffs and credits, provided Moscow lifts the "ransom tax." to Gromyko by Secretary of visa and has been told to try
again in five years.
In the course of my journalistic career, I came across State William P. Rogers at
In Kiev, a group of Jews
a precedent at the end of the 19201 where the Soviet govern- a dinner meeting in New
wrote to Mikhail Sholokhov,
ment yielded on a Jewish issue because it was very inte- York last month.
a deputy of the Supreme So-
rested in securing a trade agreement. This time it was
While the names on the list viet and the author of "And
Soviet yielding to Latvia, the small Baltic country which are not made public, the fact
Quiet Flows the Don," •ask-
was then an independent country, before it became a part that such lists are presented log him to
understand that
of the Soviet Union after World War II.
has been common knowl- the head tax "is something
The issue then between Soviet Russia and Latvia was edge among newsmen cov-
which
hurts
us very deeply."
the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn. ering the State Department
A giant mural portraying
As a religious leader and a Soviet citizen, he was perse- for some time.

cuted by the Soviet government and even kept for some
• • •
time in the notorious Spalerno Prison in Leningrad.
Gavriel Shapiro Permitted
It was at that time that the Bolshevik government
to Emigrate for Israel
sought a trade agreement with neighboring Latvia where
NEW YORK (JTA)—Ma-
the Lubavitcher had many Hasidic followers, some of them
very influential in trade and industry. One of them started or Jewish activists in Mos-
a campaign among members of the Latvian parliament to r ( e t ow, all with advanced aca-
vote against any trade pact with Moscow until the Luba- g emic degrees, have been
vitcher Rebbe was permitted to emigrate from Communist t ranted permission to leave
Russia. The Moscow government was so greatly in need he Soviet Union without pav-
of the trade agreement with Latvia, that after several le ng the excessive visa taxes
months of bickering, it permitted the Lubavitcher Rebbe ct vied on educated Soviet
tizens, the Student Stru -
and all members of his family to leave for Riga , the capital
le for Soviet Jewry inform-
of Latvia. It even attached a special car to his train to carry
e
g
d
the Jewish Telegraphic
his valuable library.
If a small country like Latvia could force Russia to A gency.
Exit visas have
ve been
yield on the emigration of the Lubavitcher Rebbe as a
gr. anted to Gavriel Shapiro,
concession for the conclusion of a trade agreement, why
oman
Rutman
and
Mikhail
cannot the powerful United States do something 'similar
K liachkin, among others.
now, when Moscow is so much in need of reciprocal trade
Shapiro, who began serv-
with this country?
in g a one-year sentence at

56 Friday, Oct. 27, 1972

—

the suppression of Jewish
culture in the Soviet Union
and the imprisonment of
Jewish artists there was
mounted Wednesday on the
steps of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York.
The Greater New York
Conference on Soviet Jewry
called it a "counter-art ex-
h ibition" to
a Soviet
folk art exhibit on display
inside the museum. The
mural was prepared by stu-
dents of the Ramaz School.
Malcolm Hoenlein, direc-
tor of the conference which
sponsored the demonstration,
said "our presence here is
not to disrupt the display or
prevent passersby from en-

tering the exhibit," but "to

THE DETROIT JEWISH MEWS "c orrective labor" last month serve ,Ss •a 'reminder that the

-

same energies exerted to en-
courage Soviet culture
abroad are channeled toward
the supression of Jewish
culture in the Soviet Union."
• • •
Jewish Officials Skeptical
Over Mass Waivers Reports
JERUSALEM (JTA) —
Reports that 176 Soviet Jew-
ish families have been
spared the emigration head
tax in recent days — since
the signing of a Soviet-Amer-
ican trade pact — continue
to be treated with skepticism
by Israeli officials.
In New York, the National
Conference on Soviet Jewry
reported mounting confusion
among Jews in the USSR as
some are being granted
visas without paying the
diploma tax while others are
told they must pay if they
want to leave. The NCSJ
also reported that visas
granted some Jews are sud-
denly revoked.
It also reported that a man

named Andrei Dubrov, 22,
had his visa and his plane
tickets and was preparing to
leave several days ago when

Soviet authorities voided his
visa without explanation and
he was drafted into the army

for two years.

According to the NCSJ,
Aleksander Temkin of Mos-
cow was granted a visa for
himself and his daughter.
His wife, who was remaining
behind, refused to allow the
girl to leave with her father,
and the authorities annulled
her visa.
As a result, Temkin can-
celed his plans to leave.
The NCSJ said that in
Kishinev some Jews are
given visas without paying
the fee and others in the
same family are ordered to
pay.
Similar incidents were re-
ported in Leningrad and
Moscow, while in Odessa and
Novosibirsk no visas are be-
ing issued to anyone.
Israeli officials expressed
great satisfaction with a
statement issued by the
Council of Europe in Stras-
bourg, France condemning
the Soviet education head
tax demanded of Jews seek-
ing to emigrate.
The officials noted that the
statement, by a forum of
major significance, came at
a time when the Soviet
Union is interested in fos-
tering closer ties with Eur-

viet Music Festival to be
held in Britain Nov. 7-30 as
a means of protesting the
head tax. The Board of Dep-
uties of British Jews, while
reluctant to proclaim an of-
ficial boycott for a variety
of reasons, has clearly indi-
cated that British Jews
should not patronize the So-
viet musical event.
The United Synagogue,
Britain's largest congrega-
tional body, declared that
"at a time when Jews in the
Soviet Union are being ha-
rassed and are being denied
their rights to religious free-
dom, the United Synagogue
deplores the visit to this
country of Soviet artists
(and) urges its members
not to support or patronize
any of these concerts."
Sen. George McGovern was
denounced by a Russian
weekly for the second time
this month for his attack on
the ransom tax and for link.'
ing it, to the prospects of
U.S.-Soviet trade.
The weekly Abroad said:
"How can the presidential
candidate of such a huge
country, with all its tremen-
dous problems, possibly have
time to worry about emigra-
tion rules for Soviet citi-
zens, including Jews? . • ."
• • •
University of Michigan
President Robben W. Flem-
ing, in a statement on the
plight of Russian Jewish aca-
demicians, said, "The fact
that most of those who wish
to leave appear to be Jew-
ish, suggests that the brain-
drain and repayment-of-the-
cost-of-education argument
being used by the Russians
in support of the policy are
not the real reason for the
rule.
"Unhappily, the Russian
policy with respect to schol-
ars comes at a time when
there were signs that our
relations were improving,
and we all looked forward
to additional steps which
would bring our countries
closer together.
"Those of us in the aca-
demic community have a
particular interest in our col-
leagues the world over.
Speaking for myself, I am
dismayed and saddened by
a development which can
only hinder the reduction of
tensions between our coun-
tries. I would hope that this
view would be shared by
scholars everywhere, and
that it would find expression
in conversations between our

ope. London, pressure is
mounting from British Jew-
ry for a boycott of the So- respective governments."

Federation Honors Erwin Simon

At last week's annual meeting of the Jewish Welfare
Federation are from left) Alan E. Schwartz, retiring Fed-
eration president, Willis mArrunin, executive vice pres-
eration president; William Avrunin, executive vice pres-
ident; Erwin S. Simon, winner of the Fred M. Butte!
Memorial Award; and Max M. Fisher, Detroit civic leader
Lions and Welfare Funds. The 30a people who gathered
at the dinner held at Cong. Shaarey Zedek honored Simon
for his many years of outstanding service to the com-
munity.

_J