38 Friday, August 1, 1975 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Soviet Jews Urge Helsinki Participants to Help Reunite Them With Relatives Living in Israel NEW YORK (JTA) — Forty Soviet Jewish activ- ists from eight cities have is- sued an appeal to "all the countries participating in the European Security Con- ference in Helsinki to assist us in reuniting with our rel- atives in Israel," the Stu- dent Struggle for Soviet Je- wry reported. The SSSJ said the reason for the appeal was that the activists had heard that the conference "had accepted the principles of assisting the reunifica- tion of separated families." Commenting on the ap- peal, Malcolm Hoenlein, ex- ecutive director of the Greater New York Confer- ence on Soviet Jewry, said that "one of the forms of harassment employed by Soviet authorities against Soviet Jews applying for vi- sas to Israel is the forced separation of families. In- creasingly this new tactic is in evidence, with parents separated from children and husbands from wives. "The European Security Conference has called for the facilitation of the reuni- I fication of families. If the Soviet Union is truly inter- ested in detente and cooper- ative endeavors, then let it start by implementing these most basic human princi- ples." In a related develop- ment., thousands of New York residents of all faiths sent telegrams to Presi- dent Ford asking him to remember the plight of Soviet Jews in his talks with Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and to give priority to human rights considerations at the security conference. At the same time, stu- dents at the Max and Rose Heller Hebrew Academy, the Bayside, N.Y. day school, staged an eight hour !`Torahthon." The event raised more than $1,000 from the families and friends of the pupils, which will benefit a special fund created by the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry. three more Jews — Anatole Malkin, Yaacob Vinarov and Lev Roitburd — have been imprisoned and await "show trials." Meanwhile, spokesmen for the Women's Cam- paign for Soviet Jewry said Wednesday that six women activists for Soviet Jewry, led by Doreen Gainsford of Britain, were arrested outside the Amer- ican Embassy in Helsinki. The group, demonstrating as the International Worn- en's Campaign for Soviet Jewry, had traveled to the Finnish capital Tuesday. In London, the Board of Deputies of British Jews has urged all governments ALEXANDRA participating in the final stage of the European Con- They had intended to urge ference on Security and the world leaders gathering Orchestra and Entertainment Cooperation in Helsinki this there not to forget the plight month to express their great of Soviet Jewry during their concern to the Soviet au- negotiations. They had also thorities over the treatment intended to hand in letters of Jews in the Soviet Union to this effect to Finnish and to urge immediate steps President Kokkonen, the SELMA'S to grant Soviet Jews their chairman of the conference. YARN SHOP The six women were ap- elementary human rights. 13075 W. Lincoln prehended outside the em- Board President Lord Lincoln Tower Apts. Fisher of Camden, declared bassy apparently as Soviet Ground Floor 96S-1015 summer hrs Mon-Fri 10-5 the situation of Soviet Jews leader Leonid Brezhnev and has deteriorated since the President Gerald Ford were European Security Confer- meeting inside. They were ence first convened two just about to unfurl their years ago. He noted that the banners as they were Photography Soviet authorities had re- quickly transported away. Weddings - Bar Mitzvah, duced Jewish emigration Finnish police denied that Social Events from 3,000 a month in 1973 the women had been ar- 647-5731 to under 100 a month at pre- rested, but observers in Hel- Eves. and Weds. sent. The ranks of Jewish sinki said that if they were prisoners of conscience sent- peacefully demonstrating Jack Drapkin enced to long prison terms they would normally have 851-2671 increased this year and been left alone. Over 30 Years_ Meanwhile, the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews and PERMANENT HAIR REMOVAL the Long Island Committee for Soviet Jewry reported the expulsion of Viktor Licensed Electrologist FREE Consultation Stern, 33-year-old son of jailed Soviet Jewish physi- private and confidential by appointment cian Dr. Mikhail Stern. 358-5493 Inez Weissman, presi- dent of the union who met ProieN ∎ intial Viktor in Israel, made the announcement. Stern's The father, Mikhail, was given an eight-year sentence on Sheldon Rot t a trumped-up bribery Orchestra charge. and The 57-year-old physician Vickie Carroll refused to work as a camp doctor where he is impris- oned and is forced to work in a machine shop. He is suffering from heart and stomach ailments and a SPECIALIST Foreign Car Service spinal disorder. IN According to Ms. Weiss- VOLKSWAGEN AND man, the elder Stern, issued PORSCHE CARS a last will and testament be- cause he felt he could not CALL survive the harsh treatment he was getting in the camp. 548-3926 The Stern family had 548-4160 been the target of contin- 541-9704 uous harassment since ap- LARRY FREEDMAN 647-2367 DRAPKIN 1111111111111111111•MMIIMMOSIIIMIMV Al' s 1018 W. 9 Mile Rd. Alfons G. Rehme FERNDALE MICH. Between Livernois & Pmehurst mobs. Ida Stern, wife of the jailed physician, an d her sons, have been interrogated numerous times and subject to illegal searches. Mrs. Stern is suffering from brain cancer. The SSSJ also reported that Joseph Gurevich, a recent Russian Jewish emigrant, has appealed to "American public opinion to save my cousin Alexan- dra Dmitrochenkova of Riga." "The Soviet authorities constantly persecute her. She is shadowed by police agents, her telephone has been disconnected and mail is not delivered. The KGB told her, 'We will never let you go'. All the invitations for exit from Israel have been intercepted, and all eighteen registered letters that I have sent her since October 1974 have not been received. Letters of protest may be sent to: Director, KGB, Lenin and Engels Street, Riga, Latvian SSR, USSR and to Alexandra Dmitro- chenkova, Gorky Street 159, apt. 37, Riga, Latvian SSR, USSR. In Jerusalem, Pinhas Sapir accused the Soviet Union of deliberately issu- ing exit visas to Jews who had no intention of going to Israel in order to prove that Soviet Jews seeking emigration had no interest in Israel. In a radio interview, Sa- pir, who is chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization Execu- tives, charged that the So- viet authorities continued to take measures against Jews seeking to immigrate to Is- rael, including the interro- gation and arrests of aliya activists. The measures were designed to intimidate Jews who want to to go to Israel, Sapir said. • Jerusalem Newsvendor •rsi from "Present Tense" Jordan Bans Book by Hassan, Elon JERUSALEM — Reports reaching here stated that the Amman newspaper Al- Rai reported that the direc- tor of press and publications in Jordan has ordered the banning of the book "Be- tween Enemies", published in Arabic as "Bin Al-Aa- dah", and written by Egyp- tian-born author Sana Has- san and the Israeli journalist Amos Elon. The book deals with the differing perceptions of the two writers regarding the Middle East conflict but concludes with an appeal for Arab-Israeli understanding and mutual tolerance. Soviet Jew in U.S. Teaches Gymnastics in New Jersey DEAL, N.J. — Aspiring gymnasts at the Monmouth YM-YWHA here are getting the opportunity of being coached by Leonid Blacher, a newly arrived Russian Jewish immigrant who earned the Soviet Master of Sport Award twice, and is certified as in international gymnastics judge. Blacher, who grew up in Leningrad, has been in the United States since June 1974. He now lives in New Jersey with his wife in the U.S. today. In an interview with the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press he explained how in Russia "you have to write everywhere that you are Jewish, on every paper, ev- ery form. It is not just a reli- gion with them. Everybody keeps it a secret that he is Jewish if he can." For many reasons, "political, social, na- tional," Blacher felt that he had to leave. He had plying for exit visas to Is- thought about emigrating rael, and their home has since 1953 but, "It was the been frequently stoned by , time of Stalin. It wasim- possible. I could only dream about it." After receiving an invita- tion from his sister-in-law in Israel to join her, Blacher and his wife spent four months filling out forms before they were allowed to leave for Israel, their first stop on their way to the United States. After a brief time in Israel, they contin- ued on to Rome, where they stayed three months while awaiting for an entry visa for the U.S. The gymnast, who worked for 16 years as a gymnastics coach in the Soviet Union, began his as- sociation with the Mon- mouth YM-YWHA as a part-time gymnastics in- structor. The board of trus- tees was so impressed by his talent and expertise, and by the reaction of their mem- bers to his classes, that they decided to expand his part- time teaching into a total program, complete with full gymnastic. equipment. . . Jewish Burial By RABBI SAMUEL J. FOX (Copyright 1975, JTA, Inc.) Jewish tradition insists upon burying the dead as soon as possible. Basically the practice was derived from a passage in the Bible which dealt with the corpse of a criminal who had been executed because of a crime that carried a death penalty with it. The Bible writes that such a person, whose corpse had been hanged: "You shall not allow his body to sus- pend from the tree . . . you shall bury him on the same day" (Deuteronomy 21:23). According. to Ibn Ezra this was a means of sancti- fying the holy land of Is- rael for whom it would be a desecration to have a corpse hanging overnight. In Jerusalem there still is a tradition, somehow, which prohibits holding a body overnight in general circumstances. This prohibition has been extended to other countries where traditionally, an at- tempt is made to bury the corpse no later than the next day. Other commentan claim that the reason for the prohibition is that man, even in his bodily form, still reflects the image of God (perhaps because the body housed the soul). Not to bury the corpse as quickly as possible would therefore be an insult to the Creator in whose image man was made. Others claim that with- holding the body from bur- ial pays excess attention to the body of man which could lead to overstress and even some sort of deification of man's bodily existence. Each child carries his own blessing into the world..