THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS ,
8 Friday, June 13, 1975
Levenzon to Appeal Six-Year Prison Sentence
NEW YORK (JTA) —
Sendor Levenzon, sentenced
to six years in prison, will
appeal his sentence in a
Kishinev court Tuesday, ac-
cording to the National Con-
ference on Soviet Jewry.
His sister, Clara, origi-
nally sentenced to three
years corrective labor, ob-
tained her release because
of inclusion in a pardon
given for certain women
prisoners. Another activist,
Anatoly Malkin, recently
arrested and charged with
draft evasion, faces a sent-
ence. of three years in
prison.
In New York, 14 promi-
nent American scientists,
including four Nobel Lau-
reates, warned the Soviet
Union that the enthusiasm
of Western scientists for
scientific exchange with the
USSR "decreases in direct
proportion to the increase in
personal threats and puni-
tive measures against Jew-
ish activist Mark Azbel, a
physics professor, and his
colleagues."
The warning followed
Azbel's press conference in
Moscow at which he re-
vealed that the KGB told
him that it considered the
weekly scientific seminars
at his home were "an anti-
Soviet action planned and
led by the Israel intellig-
ence service."
The seminar is held in Az-
bel's apartment and at-
tended by more than 50 So-
viet Jewish scientists who
have all been dismissed
from their jobs as a conse-
quence of applying for per-
mission to emigrate to Is-
rael.
Meanwhile, Dr. August
Stern, son of Dr. Mikhail
Stern, sentenced in Vinnitsa
on Dec. 31 to eight years im-
prisonment on charges of
bribery, reported that in a
telephone conversation with
his mother in Vinnitsa, he
received information that
Dr. Stern's attorney David
Axelbandt, met with Dr.
Stern at the labor camp at
Kharkov for the first time
June 5 to prepare the appeal
for presentation to the Su-
preme Court of the Soviet
Union in Moscow.
According to August
Stern, his father said "I am
confident that the Supreme
Court will recognize my in-
nocence and will prove its
justice to the world."
of the
York Medical Committee
for Soviet Jewry, the Boston
Medical Mobilization for
• Soviet jewry and the Long
Island Medical/Dental/
Health Committee for So-
viet Jewry which appealed
to Soviet President Alexei
Podgorny for the life of Dr.
Stern.
The advertisement, in the
form of a letter and signed
by members of the health
professions, read:
"We appeal to you on be-
half of our Soviet Jewish
colleague Dr. Mikhail
Stern, former chief of the
department of endocrinol-
ogy in the Vinnitsa Hospi-
tal and distinguished
member of the world medi-
cal community, who was
singularly responsible for
saving the lives of count-
less children. For over 30
years he skillfully and
faithfully served those
who needed him. Now he
faces eight years in a So-
viet prison camp.
"As concerned colleagues
and believers in the basic
rights of mankind, we urge
you to grant clemency to Dr.
Stern. He suffers from sev-
ere heart disease, serious
stomach and spinal ail-
ments and we fear that he
cannot survive his prison
term.
"In the name of human
compassion and in the inter-
est of international under-
standing, we the 'under-
signed members of the
health professions appeal to
you to release Dr. Stern
from his imprisonment and
allow him to spend his re-
maining years reunited
with his family."
It also was reported that a
massive campaign aimed at
removing the shackles
from the scores of Soviet
Jewish prisoners of consci-
ence has been launched by
the 85 constituent agencies
of the Greater New York
Conference on Soviet Jewry.
Eugene Gold, New York
Conference chairman, an-
nounced that the cam-
paign is keyed to the fifth
anniversary (Sunday) of
the mass arrest of Soviet
Jews that resulted in the
infamous Leningrad trials
in December 1970. Gold
said the drive will be high-
lighted by a rally in Foley
Square in Manhattan to-
day at which an "Amnesty
Appeal" that calls on the
Soviets to grant freedom to
the Soviet Jewish prison-
ers, will be released.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Although the family has
been adopted by Cong.
Beth Shalom, Greater De-
troit Section of the Na-
tional Council of Jewish
Women and the Maimon-
ides Medical Society Wom-
en's Auxiliary, they still
need help, according to the
Detroit committee.
VICTORIA, ISAAC AND IRMA POLTINNIKOV
these courageous people
have been subjected."
In London, two decorated
Jewish war heroes of the So-
viet Union who were
stripped of their rank and
deprived of their pensions
because they applied for vi-
sas to emigrate to Israel,
have appealed to World War
II veterans in other coun-
tries that fought the Nazis
to intervene on behalf of
their emigration rights.
The appeal, addressed to
veterans in the U.S.,
Britain, France and Israel
was signed by Col. (ret.)
Efim Davidovich and Col.
Lev Ovsicher on the occa-
sion of the 30th anniver-
sary of the Allied victory
in Europe.
Col. Davidovich holds 15
Soviet medals and orders for
bravery in combat and was
wounded five times in action
against the Germans. Col.
Ovsicher, also the recipient
of many decorations, was
Wounded in an air battle
over Stalingrad. Still unre-
tired, he was demoted to the
ranks and, like Davidovich,
lost his pension.
In Mexico City, resolu-
tions calling on the Soviet
Union to provide equality of
rights to Soviet Jewry and
permission for Jews to emi-
grate to Israel were adopted
here at a study conference
on the results of 12 years of
struggle in Latin American
Jewish communities for the
rights of Soviet_Jews._
The conference was spon-
sored by the Mexican Com-
mittee for the Rights of So-
viet Jews under the
presidency of Andres He-
nestrosa, which was at-
tended by leading artists,
intellectuals and politicians
of Mexico and 20 Latin
American countries.
The Detroit Committee
for Soviet Jewry, mean-
while, received a plea from
members of the Isaac Pol-
tinnikov family of Novosi-
birsk, who have struggled
for three years to obtain
permission to leave for Is-
rael.
The plea, sent on the back
of a receipt for a food pack-
age, read "Entreat some-
body of friends to come to
us, situation is undesirable.
Grateful for everything
wholeheartedly. Please
don't send anymore. Victo-
ria." _
Victoria, the Poltinnikov's
daughter, is a radiologist
and is suffering from active
tuberculosis. Her father
Isaac, an ophthalmologist,
and mother Irma, a cardiol-
ogist, suffer from repeated
_ heart attacks. Irma also has
diabetes. Another daughter
already is living in Israel.
However, she has been una-
ble to contact her family in
more than four months.
According to the Detroit
committee, the Poltinnikovs
are afraid to go to the hospi-
tal because they fear that
the physicians there are
KGB (secret police) agents
and want to murder or poi-
son them.
Letters in their behalf
may be sent to congressmen
and senators and to Secre-
tary General Leonid Brezh-
nev, The Kremlin, Moscow,
USSR. Letters of support to
the family may be sent to
Dr. Isaac Poltinnikov, Vos-
chod 1, Apt. 12, Novosibirsk,
USSR.
JEWISH VOCATIONAL
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Father's Day
JUNE 15
WITH A SYMBOL OF LIFE
Eliav: Conspiracy Settling
West Bank Area Illegally
JERUSALEM (JTA) —
Arye Eliav charged that a
conspiracy was under way
to establish 'Jewish settle-
ments on the West Bank
Mrs. Stern told her son,
without the legal authoriza-
who is in the United States
tion of the government. He
under the auspices of the
claimed that a number of
Union of Councils for So-
He noted that on June 15, cabinet ministers, Knesset
viet Jewry of Hempstead, 1970, some 20 Soviet Jews members, army officers and
that in her most recent were arrested, allegedly for other officials were partici-
meeting with her husband, attempting to hijack a So- pating in the conspiracy
he asked her to convey to viet airliner. Of these, only while the government and
his children and to his Sylva Zalmanson has since the Knesset as a whole was
friends that he is not de- been released — after kept in the dark about this
spondent, despite the diffi- wo rld-wide protests on her illegal activity.
culties of his present situa- be half.
Eliav, an outspoken
tion, but is filled with hope
The situation in the "dove" who quit the Labor
that he will -soon be free.
ca mps has become intolera- Party last March over policy
The National Conference ble , he said. The prisoners differences with the Rabin
on Soviet Jewry reported are "guilty" of nothing more Government and was cur-
that Dr. Stern's other son, th an a desire to be repa- rently one of the founders of
Viktor, has been told he tri ated to their homeland in the new leftist Ya' Act fac-
must leave the Soviet Union acc ordance with the Univer- tion, charged at a meeting
with his wife and child sal Declaration of Human of the Knesset Finance
within one month. Rig hts. He said eyewitness Committee that the conspir-
Meanwhile, The New tes timony has been received ,,acy was being carried out in
York Times' Sunday edition rec ently that substantiates stages — first by establish-
carried a large advertise- the reports of the "physical ing military settlements,
ment sponsored by the New and mental torture to which work camps and other sites
of that nature in the Judea
and Samaria regions and
gradually converting them
into civilian settlements.
He said this was being
done covertly to bypass the
decision-making process the
government Must follow
before any new settlement
can be established in the ad-
ministered territories.
Eliav said the latest of
the clandestine settle-
ments was Ofra, in the Sa-
maria region which was
set up without any prior_
decision by the govern-
ment and was, in fact,
unknown to the public un-
til its existence - was ex-
posed by Yossi Sarid, a
Labor Alignment Knesset
"dove."
Amnon Lin, of Likud,
denied there was a conspir-
acy. He said the settlers of
Ofra were to be praised and
that Jewish settlements
throughout the West Bank
should be supported.
JEWISH NATIONAL FUND
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in his name
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JEWISH NATIONAL FUND,
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Oak Park, Mich. 48237
968-0820
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