20 Friday, Friday, August 21, 1981 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Stalin Purges Culminated With The Night of the Murdered Poets 82's are coming! 81's at close-out prices! "4, AL STEINBERG ALSO FEATURING AMC-JEEP & RENAULT ART MORAN PONTIAC 29300*. TELEGRAPH JUST NORTH OF TEL-TWELVE MALL 353-9000 NEW YORK (JTA) — Aug. 12 marked the 29th anniversary of The Night of the Murdered Poets." Re- calling that tragic event and the continuing Soviet repression of Jewish culture and emigration, Theodore Mann, chairman of the Na- tional Conference on Soviet Jewry, said in a specially prepared statement: "Twenty-nine years ago, on Aug. 12, 1952, in the basement of Lubianka Prison in Moscow, 24 Jewish writers, poets, ar- tists, musicians and actors were executed. Their mur- der was the culmination of an anti-Jewish campaign during the 'black years' of purges and repressions which swept the Soviet Union from 1948 to 1953. Some of the victims were survivors of the 400 Jewish artists rounded up with their families in the winter of 1948-1949 and banished to the gulag, where many of them perished in labor camps. "No word of the August 1952 massacre reached the world until after Stalin's death three years later, when the full implication-of that dark day finally be- came clear. 'The Night of the Murdered Poets' was to sound the death knell for Jewish culture in the Soviet Union. "Today, almost three de- cades later, another gen- eration of Soviet Jews is reaffirming its Jewish heritage. Deprived of the tools to learn about Judaism — neither schools, books nor other material on Jewish his- tory, art, literature, lan- guage or religion are available — they are nevertheless gathering in private homes for infor- mal study groups. Their hunger for knowledge of their Jewish past re- mains strong, in the face of an increasingly hostile environment. "In recent months, the harrassment and arrests of participants in these self- study groups have acceler- ated alarmingly as the authorities once more at- tempt to stamp out Jewish culture and identity 'in the Soviet Union. Anti- Semitism has become all- pervasive in Soviet life, stimulated and directed by deliberate government policies. "Many Jews, who see that the Soviet Union holds no future for them, focus their hopes on emigrating to Is- rael. While they wait for permission to leave, some for over 10 years, they watch anxiously as the gates to freedom continue to close. Meanwhile, the lead- ers and organizers of the seminars and those who demonstrate and petition for their right to emigrate, are charged with random `crimes' and sent to prison, labor camps and exile. Ken Sweder, chairman of the Soviet Jewry Commit- tee of the Jewish Commu- nity Council of Metropoli- tan Boston, noted that while emigration figures dropped this year to what may be an all-time annual low, new - trials against leaders in the Soviet Jewish emigration movement have been started in recent weeks. These, he said, include the sentencing of Dr. Viktor Brailovsky, Vladimir Kis- lik, Kim Fridman and Stanislav Zubko. In addition, Sweder said, scheduled to be tried are Evgeny Lein of Leningrad, Boris Chernobilsky of Mos- cow, and Vladimir Tsuker- man and Osip Lokshin of Kishinev. Chernobilsky has fled Moscow and is now un- derground in a dramatic ef- fort to show the world that his scheduled trial would have been a aravesty ofjus- tice." WISH FOR JEWELRY Highest dollars paid for your diamonds, gold, sterling or old jewelry! WZO to Fight Anti-Zionism MEMORIAL DAY RALLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 11:00 TO 5:00 ZOA CULTURAL CENTER 18451 W. 10 MILE MVO BLOCKS WEST Of THE SOUTIIIELD EXPRESSWAY) Hebron dates back to 1727 b.c.e. as a Jewish settlement. Our Jewish forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their wives are buried in Hebron. David was anointed King of Israel in Hebron. Hebron has had its Jewish popula- tion destroyed on several occasions: 1929 by Arab rioters who killed 67 men, women and children and wounded 60 others. The community was resettled in 1931 but was destroyed by the Arab unheavals of 1936. It was liberated by Israel in the Six Day War of June 1967, and today there is a new Jewish settlement in Hebron called Kiriath Arba. Join your fellow Jews and memorialize the atrocities of Heb- ron throughout history and why it could happen again! Learn the truth about the so-called "dis- puted" territories in Israel. Dis- cover the facts about the mush- rooming threat of andi-semitism in Michigan and the country as a whole. • Guest Speakers • Kosher Refreshments • Information Booths • Prizes and Free Balloons • Bring Your Family & Friends For more information call 357-5449. Sponsored by the Jewish Defense League of Detroit. JEWISH DEFENSE LEAGUE JERUSALEM (JTA) — The World Zionist Organ- ization's information de- partment will establish an international task force to combat anti-Zionism, Eli Eyal, head of the depart- ment, told the WZO Execu- tive last week. The task force, he said, will include all organiza- tions that fight anti- Semitism and are active on behalf of Israel. Eyal, in briefing the WZO Executive on the activities of the department, said that the Zionist movement must undertake the task of lead- ing the fight against anti- Zionism which today is an expression of anti- Semitism. He noted that the 1975 United Nations reso- lution which equated Zionism with racism encouraged rampant anti- Zionism around the world and intensified classical anti-Semitism. The reality, Eyal added, is that anti- Zionism has become the current substitute for what was at one time crude anti-Semitism. The department, in coop- eration with organizations dealing with Zionist and Is- raeli information overseas, has prepared an informa- tional document on the sub- ject of Zionism which in- cludes the ideological back- ground to the Anti-Zionist campaign. Also planned are sym- posia and audio-visual material on Zionist topics. Israel Radio's overseas serv- ice will soon begin broad- casting a series of lectures on Jewish, Zionist and Is- raeli subjects. This will be a joint venture of the WZO in- formation department and Tel Aviv University, Eyal said. 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