-;174- - alwal11111111PIRIENIPIIIIIIM1111111.11111.impoz ----- r7 - THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS U.S. State Dept. Deplores Moscow Arrest of Soviet Jewish Activist Brailovsky WASHINGTON (JTA) — The State Department said that the United States de- plores the arrest by Soviet authorities of Dr. Victor Brailovsky, a leading Soviet Jewish activist, in Moscow last week. The 45-year-old cyber- neticist, editor of the Jewish imizdat journal, "Jews in — USSR," was arrested 13 as some 100 refus- rii-Ks gathered at the • Apresidium of the Supreme Soviet to deliver a letter to --' President Leonid Brezhnev accusing the Soviet Union of violating the Helsinki Accords by refusing to grant emigration visas. — The demonstration was / scheduled to coincide with \_ the opening of the confer- ence reviewing the Helsinki ' accords in Madrid. Meanwhile, former prisoner of conscience Lev Roitburd of Odessa and his wife Lilia have been given exit visas to rejoin their relatives in Israel after_ an eight-year battle. In a related development, close to 200 Soviet Jews began hunger strikes in several Soviet cities last week to protest the continu- ing refusal of authorities to allow them to reunite withe their families in Israel, it was announced by the Na- tional Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ). The hunger strikes were timed to coincide with the opening day of the Madrid Conference. Reports from Jewish ac- tivists in the Soviet Union indicate that 84 Jews are fasting in Moscow, 28 in Leningrad, 27 in Riga, 15 in Kiev, seven in Kishinev, 10 in Kharkov and two in Tbilisi. In Montreal, Avital Shcharansky, wife of the imprisoned Soviet Jewish activist, Anatoly Shcharansky, and McGill law professor Irwin Co- tler, legal counsel for Shcharansky, urged the Canadian government to "take a strong stand at Madrid and hold the Soviet Union to account for its violations of the Helsinki Final Act." Cotler said Trudeau ad- vised them that "you can rest assured that Shcharansky's name will remain on every agenda for discussion that we have with the Soviet Union on Human Rights matters." Cotler said that he told the Canadian officials that Canada had a special re- sponsibility to the "Shcharanskys" in the Soviet Union, because it was the Canadian govern- ment that was principally responsible for including in the Helsinki Final Act pro- visions regarding freedom of immigration, reunifica- tion of families and freedom of ideas. Cotler, who also acts as legal counsel for both Ida Nudel and Yosef Men- delevich, provided gov- ernment officials with legal memoranda on their behalf for use at Madrid. It also was learned that the Italian Jewish com- munity has urged major Jewish organizations to have "second thoughts" about a proposed plan aimed at reducing the high rate of drop-outs — Jews leaving the Soviet Union who opt to go to countries other than Is- rael. The Board of Deputies of Italian Jews, the umbrella organization of Jewish communities, has directed its plea to the Council of Jewish Federations (CJF), the Jewish Agency, the World Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith and HIAS. It is opposed to the plan to substitute Naples for Vie- nna as the transit point for Jews leaving the USSR. The Italian Jewish community expressed regret that it was not consulted on the issue and stressed that the Naples plan could have grave and dangerous conse- quences for those Jewish emigres left behind without the assistance given them until now by international Jewish organizations. The Naples plan is fa- vored by the Jewish Agency because ostensibly it would allow its emissaries more time to persuade the emigres to go to Isral rather than to the U.S. or other Western countries. The Au- strian government allows Jews in transit from the Soviet Union only 24 hours in Vienna. Friday, November 21, 1980 25 Music by Sam Barnett Big or small, we custom the music to your needs. 968-2563 r MIN 1E111 ■ I NM MN MI =I MI MIMI i. •..,(S) 4)