18 May 28, 1976

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

77 Activists From Soviet Union Call for Culture Revival
in the USSR as Antidote to Severe Anti-Jewish Pressures

NEW YORK (JTA) — In
what the Student Struggle
for Soviet Jewry termed "a

major new policy statement
by leaders of the emigration
movement," 77 Jewish activ-

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ists from 13 Soviet cities
have called for "the revival
of Jewish culture in the
USSR" as an antidote to
anti-Jewish pressure so sev-
ere that in one generation
"one million Jews will dis-
appear."
The activists contend that
they are not replacing emi-
gration to Israel, but are
seeking "a cultural auton-
omy of Soviet Jews inside
the USSR" at a time when

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the Kremlin's "anti-Semitic
campaign has the greatest
effect precisely on those
Jews who do not know their
past, do not have a present
and, under the press of
propaganda renounce their
future," the SSSJ reported.
The program of the activ-
ists for both Soviet Jews
who choose to stay or wish
to leave include a system of
Jewish and Hebrew educa-
tion; access to or publication

of Jewish books in Russian,
including religious works;
publication of Jewish jour-
nals in Russian; and the es-
tablishment of Jewish cul-
tural performing groups.

At the same time, Har-
old Ostroff, in his farewell
assessment as outgoing
president of the Work-
men's Circle, told 1,000
delegates to the organiza-
tion's national convention
here last weekend that
UNESCO, which grants
funds for intercultural ac-
tivities, "should make
funds available to the Jew-
ish communities within
the Soviet Union to re-es-
tablish their theaters, cul-
tural institutions and lit-
erary societies."

Ostroff said that those
Jews who choose to remain
in the USSR are entitled to
continue their secular cul-
tural activities, "and
UNESCO is the proper me-
dium of assistance, _one
which the Soviet cannot
claim is tainted by Western
influence."
In Washington, eight Sen-
ators agreed to seek estab-
lishment of a permanent
Congressional advisory
group that would closely
and continuously monitor
treatment of Jews in the So-
viet Union.
The bi-partisan group
also launched a direct effort
to determine the current
personal circumstances of
30 Soviet Jews who had met
with 16 Senators in a Mos-
cow hotel during an official
U.S. visit last summer.

Their action came at a
breakfast meeting at the
Capitol, hosted by Sen.
Jacob K. Javits (R-N.Y.)
who proposed the steps
after hearing Alexander
Luntz, the Moscow scien-
tist who was allowed to
emigrate to Israel last
January, describe grow-
ing harassment and perse-
cution of Soviet Jews and
plead with the Senators to
"try more" to help them.

Javits suggested that the
Senators provide Soviet
Ambassador Anatoly Dob-
rynin with the names of the
30 Jews and follow through
to obtain details on their cir-
cumstances. He urged both
Houses of Congress estab-
lish "an institutional mech-
anism for continued over-
sight on this question" of
depriving Soviet Jews of
their right to emigrate if
they wished.
Meanwhile, Israel learned
of stepped-up attempts by
Soviet authorities to harass
would-be Jewish emigrants.
Foreign Minister Yigal
Allon told the Knesset that
20 Jewish scientists and
professionals were sum-
moned to the police station
nearest their homes and
warned that if they did not
find employment within a
fortnight they would be
punished. These persons
had in fact been fired from
their jobs for submitting
exit visa applications, Allon
said.
In a related development,
the International League
for the Repatriation of Rus-

sian Jews called attention to
a new violation of the Hel-
sinki agreement and urged
U.S. intervention.
Rabbi Benjamin Blech,
league president who made
the announcement, said his
group has been informed of
a new strategy that has
been introduced by the So-
viets to prevent reunifica-
tion of families in direct
violation of the Helsinki ac-
cord and Soviet law which
specifically permits emigra-
tion for the purpose of reu-
nification with family and
one's ethnic group.

According to Rabbi
Blech, within the past —/
three weeks Soviet Jews
applying for visas have
been called to the "ovir"
and interrogated for hours
about their relatives who
have invited them to come
to Israel. "Emigration
papers, painstakingly as-
sembled after months of
hard work, are torn up in
front of the applicants and
they are forced to sign
statements denouncing
relations in Israel," Blech
reported. "Many such in-
cidents have already been
reported in Moscow, Len-
ingrad and Odessa."

In letters to Ford and Kis-
singer, Blech urged that the
U.S. government take this
matter under advisement
and call these violations to
the attention of the Soviet
government.
Meanwhile, Emanuel
Shimoni, the Israel Consul
General in Philadelphia,
declared that Soviet Jews
who emigrate to the United
States are jeopardizing the
chances of thousands of
other Jews in the USSR of
going to Israel.
Shimoni told an interna-
tional forum at the annual
meeting of Bnai Brith's
Middle Atlantic Region at
the Concord Hotel that fail-
ure of Soviet Jews to go to
Israel provides the Soviets
with an excuse to close the
gates to Jewish Emigration
still further. He urged
Americans not to offer So-
viet Jewish emigrants more
aid and assistance than they
would receive in Israel.

In another development,
strong community support
for a memorial to Col.
Efim Davidovich, a Soviet
Jewish war hero who died
in Minsk on April 24 after
suffering his eighth heart
attack, was urged by the
Greater New York Confer-
ence on Soviet Jewry.

Malcolm Hoenlein, con-
ference executive director,
said that to commemorate ilk
his deep love for Israel, a 111,
memorial grove has been
set aside in Davidovich's
name in the Soviet Jewry
Freedom Forest.

Ex-Nazi Jailed

BONN — Johannes No-
wotsch, 75, a former Nazi
officer, was sentenced by a
west German court to five
years imprisonment on con-
viction of taking part in the
killing of .500 Jews in Poland
in World War II.

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