Congress, Committee Unity Plan Abandoned NEW YORK — The American Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee announced that discus- sions between these two organizations concerning a possible merger have been discontinued. Both groups agreed that the discussions, which have been intensive and cordial, have provided them with a deeper understanding of each other and their respective programs. The Joint Congress-Committee memorandum states that the two organizations will continue to cooperate as they have done in the past on specific domestic and foreign problems that confront the Jewish community today, - and they will seek to explore ways of enlarging such cooperation. THE JEWISH NEWS s;;S"'"'t. 2,:t4 A Weekly Review ""!'`. of Jewish Events — VOL. LXVII, No. 16 17515 W. 9 Mile Rd., Southfield, Mich. 48075 June 27, 1975 Terrorists Training in China as Fighter Pilots; Iraq, Libya Revealed as Anti-Israel Bases Russian Army Col. Lev Ovisher, shown left, and Col. Ye- fim Davidovich participated in a demonstration of 1,000 Jews March 2 to commemorate the 200,000 World War II victims of the Minsk ghetto. Col. Davidovich was subsequently stripped of his rank and pension. Support for Colonel Urged by the SSSJ NEW YORK — What keeps a man going after his fifth heart - attack — especially if he is constantly hounded by Soviet police agents in the city of Minsk? For Col. Yefim Davidovich it is a simple matter of justice. According to the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, Davidov- ich was a teenager in 1942 when he joined the Red Army. He rose quickly to the rank of major, was decorated 15 times, then came home to find his father, mother, brother and 78 close relatives had been slaughtered by the Nazis. He decided on a military career to best serve his country, and retired with distinction after a heart attack in 1969. In the following years, his study of Jewish heroism during the Holocaust turned to revulsion at the re-emergence of anti- Semitism in Minsk, this time by Soviet authorities. Letter after eloquent letter of protest, then an application- for exit to Israel,. finally met with official retaliation. His home was searched, and he was arrested, released only after Western protest. - His friends were interrogated about an "illegal under- ground Jewish organization." The continual harassment took its physical toll; four heart attacks followed. It was difficult to call an ambulance — Davidovich's phone had been discon- nected by police — and he was saved each time only by the dedication of his wife Maria, a nurse. On March 2, Col. Davidovich put on his old army uniform'. with its rows of decorations. Carrying a large floral wreath with Yiddish and Russian inscriptions, he led 1,000 Jews to the single monument commemorating the martyrdom of 200,000 Jews in the Minsk ghetto. Disregarding the warning of KGB "observers;" he spoke of the suffering and resistance of Russian Jews during Holocaust. He said, "Neo-fascism is raising its head again. They want to do what Hitler did not succeed in doing — to destroy completely the Jewish nation. Let us swear on the memory of our dear apes who lie-in this grave, in the name of our children and grandchil- dren, in the name of future generations — we will do everything to prevent the repetition of the terrible catastrophe which befell our people during the years of World War II." Nine days later Col. Davidovich, who had served as an officer for 27 yeais, was stripped of his rank and army pen- sion. Although he has almost no other income, he and his friends continue to pen letters of protest. A spokesman for the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry de- clared, "The courageous voice of Yefim Davidovich must not be stilled. We urge all those who abhor the presence of official anti- Semitism in the USSR to send strong letters of support to Yefim Davidovich at: Kubisheva 55; apt. 77; Minsk; Byelorussian SSR: USSR." TEL AVIV (JTA) — Reliable sources said here that Palestinian Arab terrorists are being trained at air force bases in the People's Republic of China to pilot fighter planes and helicopters. The terrorists are undergoing -similar training at bases in Iraq and Libya but not in any Arab countries with borders contiguous to Israel, the sources said. They said it was assumed that once their training is completed, the terrorist flyers would be ab- sorbed into air force units of Arab countries and would not form a separate formation of their own. Pilot training is the newest addition to the increasingly sophisticated military training being given to mem- bers of terrorist organizations. Their armament already includes anti-aircraft guns, missiles and artillery. It was learned, in addition, that terrorist groups are making use of students in the administered territories. A Bethle- hem student who was killed over the weekend while assembling a bomb is believed to have been working at the instructions of a terrorist organization. The latter are said to use threats, blackmail and offers of money to coerce students into their service and to come to neighboring Arab countries during their summer 'vacations for training in terrorist techniques and sabotage. Meanwhile, Israel will exchange 20 live Arab terrorists for the bodies of two Jews hanged in Egypt 30 years ago. The terrorists, former residents of the Gaza Strip and Sinai-, are all serving prison terms. They were released to Egypt under the terms of an agreement reached through the offices of Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger during his "shuttle" diplomacy last March. Egypt will return to Israeli authorities the remains of Eliyahu Hakim and E-liyahu Bet-Tzuri, members of the underground Stern group of the pre-statehood era who were sent to Cairo in 1945 to assassinate Lord Moyne, the then British Resident Minister in the Middle East. They were captured, sentenced to death and executed in Cairo. They will be re-buried on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem with full military honors. In Jerusalem, a 17-year old yeshiva student was remanded in custody for 10 days by a magistrates court on suspicion of incitement to violence against Arabs. He was one of four youths brought before the court in connec- tion with an illegal organization known as "Terror-Anti-Terror" which advocates reprisals against Arab terrorist acts. Shimon Lerner, the apparent leader of the group, admitted that he was 'a member of the Jewish Defense League in the past but claimed that he was no longer connected with that organization. He also claimed that he has nothing against Arabs and was opposed in principle to counter-terrorism as an act of vengeance. Lerner was convicted two years ago in a case of arson against a missionary institution. He conveyed an impression of innocence in the court but police described him as "a cunning fox" who refused to cooper- ate with them and refused to give the name of his father. The police requested that- he be detained because they believe him to be a key figure behind the organization that sends young Jews into East Jerusalem for reprisal acts of violence and sabotage against Arab residents. - It also was reported that families all over Israel are asking to adopt seven-month-old Assaf Mordechai whose parents were killed by terrorists in Kfar Yuval June 15. The infant, who underwent surgery for the removal of grenade fragments at Safed Hospital, was reported to be improving. His mother, 22-year-old Simha Mordechai, died in the hospital of wounds inflicted by a grenade. The same grenade killed her husband, Yaacov Mordechai who had joined an army unit assaulting his home in Kfar Yuval where four terrorists were holding members of his family hostage. All four terrorists were killed, two of them by Mordechai himself before he was fatally wounded. His brother, Bezalel Mordechai, also wounded by the terrorists, is recovering in Safed Hospital. An Israeli soldier wounded in the assault was discharged from the hospital. President Ephraim Katzir meanwhile - visited Kfar Yuval and said he was deeply impressed by the courage and determination of the Kfar Yuval settlers, young and old, in face of the dangers arising from the village's proximity to the- Lebanese border. (See related story on Page 15) Soviet Prisoners of Conscience Freed as Jail Sentences End NEW YORK (JTA) — Three Soviet Jewish prisoners of conscience, two of them sentenced-in the second Leningrad trial, have been released on completion of their five-year prison terms, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry reported. ,The two Jews sentenced in May 1971 at the second Leningrad trials, both on charges of anti-Soviet slander, are Lassal Kaminsky and Lev Yagman. The third -Jew is David Chernoglaz, who was sentenced in June 1971 at the Kishinev trial on charges of anti-Soviet agitation and propa- ganda. The releases came on the fifth anniversary of the 1970 mass arrests which led to the Leningrad trials of 1970 and 1971. The anniver- sary was marked by plans for hunger strikes by Jews throughout the Soviet Union. In Washington, August Stern, son of Dr. Mikhail Stern, appealed to President Ford to urge the Soviet authorities to grant clemency to his father who is serving an eight-year sentence in a Soviet labor camp. Stern met with Philip Buchan, President Ford's counselor, at the White House and appealed for intervention by the President and (Continued on Page 20) I 'ietv Nuclear Desalinator as Negev Boon TEL AVIV (JTA) — An invest- ment of $800 million for a nuclear reactor in the Negev region could provide in 10 years both desalinated water and enough electric power to turn the Negev into a green pasture. That was the forecast Raanan Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency's settlement department, presented to the Engineers Club here. He said a reactor could provide 120,000 cubic meters of desalinated water annually which combined with another 100,000 cubic meters of water from treated sewage from the Tel Aviv region could make fer- tile a million dunams of parched land, he said.