Friday, May 6, 1983 31

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Trial for Soviet Jewish Hebrew Teacher Due Next Week

NEW YORK (JTA) —
Thrice arrested Moscow
Hebrew teacher and Jewish
emigration activist losif
Begun might go on trial
next week, it was reported
by the National Conference
on Soviet Jewry.
Begun, 56, has been as-
signed a lawyer by the
authorities and his case is
expected to be given to the
local prosecutor this week.
The assignment of a lawyer
came after a friend of Be-
gun's was unable to find one
for him.
Charged with "anti-
Soviet agitation and prop-
aganda," Begun is
threatened with a possible
seven years in a labor camp
and five years in internal
exile. A mathematician and
holder of a Candidate of Sci-
ences degree, he had been
waiting for permission to
emigrate to Israel for more
than a decade. He has
served two years in prison
and in exile in Siberia.
In another develop-
ment, the National Con-
ference said it has re-
ceived reports of addi-
tional meassures which
further jeopardize the
lives of those who have
applied to leave.
Vulnerable to dismissal
from their jobs once they
have submitted their docu-
ments to the visa office,
Jews are now threatened by
a Redundancy Law: those
people holding managerial
positions will be fired or
demoted to blue collar jobs
in an effort to streamline
what is viewed as "top
heavy bureaucracy."
If fired, their chances of
being imprisonered are
greater than before. Mean-
while, the Parasite Law was
also tightened so that a per-
son who is without work for
two months, rather than
four months, as the law
previously stipulated, can
be tried as a "parasite."
Obtaining work will also
be harder. Reports suggest
that the greater Moscow
Region is being extended
beyond the suburban vil-
lage of Strunino, thus forc-
ing those now allowed to re-
side within Moscow city
limits to live further away -
from the center.
In Pittsburgh, Sen.
John Heinz (R-Pa.)
charged that the Soviet
Union is "engaged in an
attempt to spiritually
annihilate all that is
Judaic."
Heinz, • addressing the
opening session of the 83rd
national convention of the
Zionist Organization of
America, told the 500 dele-
gates assembled to pay
tribute to ZOA president
Ivan Novick that "Just 40
years after the Nazi attempt
to exterminate the Jewish
people, as we honor the
memory of those who died in
the Holocaust, the govern-
ment of the USSR is
heightening its attempt to
totally destroy Soviet
Jewry.
"If it can be said that Nazi
extermination camps were
an effort to physically re-
move the Jewish people

from the face of the earth,
then the Soviets are
engaged in an attempt to
spiritually annihilate all
that is Judaic," Heinz de-
clared.
In a related development,
"new and frightening" indi-
cations of the Kremlin's in-
creased anti-Jewish drive
have emerged from the
USSR, according to the Stu-
dent Struggle for Soviet
Jewry and Union of Coun-
cils for Soviet Jews.
Victor Louis, a Soviet
"Journalist" who sends
articles to Western publi-
cations but is universally
considered to be KGB-
connected and reflective
of official thinking, has
written, "Whether one
likes or dislikes the sub-
ject, mass Jewish emigra-
tion from the Soviet
Union has come to an
end. In the USSR it is now
said openly that 'the last
train has left the state-
ion.' "
After speaking about
"dropouts" — emigrants
who do not go on to Israel —
Louis asserts that the
Soviet press is now focusing
on Soviet Jews "who
changed their minds about
requesting perMission to
leave and decided to stay in
the USSR," rather than on
"horror stories in the lives of
those who immigrated to Is-
rael."
"In a number of offices
where permission to leave is
granted, letters from disap-
pointed emigrants, de-
signed to induce those who
apply to change their
minds, hang on the walls."
Louis claims that the
authorities are now permit-
ting more disappointed
emigrants to return. "In
place of the slogan, let my
people go,' another slogan
has developed, let my
people go back.' "
Chicago Action for
Soviet Jewry has re-
ported to the SSSJ and
UCSJ a letter just re-
ceived from a Leningrad
activist describing a re-
cent Soviet television
broadcast:
"I've never seen anything
like that. The program said
that Zionists have seized
power everywhere — in
banks, newspapers and
governments.
"On the screen came Is-
raeli tanks and airplanes,
Beirut on fire, crying Arab
children, parading Israeli
soldiers, and murdered
Arabs in Sabra and Shatila.
The term 'final solution'
was used, without mention-
ing who it was directed
against.
"Then the- viewer was
given explanations on
Jewish `chosenness' by
Yasir Arafat. The program
asserted that Jews were
speaking too much about
the victims of the
Holocaust. Towards the
end, the faces of several
Jewish leaders were shown,
and it was told that all these
people are enemies of all
good and humanity, and
that any form of mercy
towards them was a crime
against humanity."

,

The SSSJ and UCSJ
have also learned that
21-year-old Mikhail
Rosenstein of Moscow,
son of long-term refus-
niks Grigory and
Natasha Rosenstein, has
been accused of "draft
evasion."
Meanwhile, the SSSJ and
UCSJ have joined forces
with the Simon Wiesenthal
Center of Los Angeles to
co-sponsor a half-page ad-
vertisement in the Wash-
ington Post. Under the
headline, "In America, You
Have to Kill Someone to Get
12 Years in Prison — In
RUssia, You May Just Have
to Teach Hebrew," it high--
lighted the plights of pris-
oners of conscience Dr.
Iosif Begun, Dr. Alexan-
der Paritsky, Felix
Kochubiyevsky, Simon
Shnirman and others
harassed by the KGB.
In Washington, Gerald
Kraft, president of Bnai
Brith International, told
the Annual Leadership
Conference of the National
Conference on Soviet Jewry
that the virtual halt to
Jewish emigration from the
Soviet Union has not si-
lenced the Soviet Jewry
movement.
Instead, he said, the
movement has "regained
momentum," pointing to
the recent World Confer-
ence on Soviet Jewry and
the Bnai Brith "Day of Sol-
idarity" as a "turning point
in the current history of the
Soviet Jewry movement. If
the Kremlin thought three
years of heightened repres-
sion of Soviet Jews could
snuff us out it now knows
better."
Kr aft made his re-
marks when he accepted
the NCSJ's 1983 Merit
Award honoring Bnai
Brith International for its
programs on behalf of
Soviet Jewry. The
award cited Bnai Brith
in particular for sponsor-
ing worldwide demon-
strations that coincided
with, and underscored,
the March 15-17 World
Conference on Soviet
Jewry in Jerusalem.
It also was learned that
six Siberian religious dissi-
dents may soon leave the
Soviet Union with the help
of several Chicago religious
organizations.
Lynn Buzzare, director of
the Christian Legal Society,
said at a press conference at
the Midwest offices of the
American Jewish Commit-
tee, said several Chicago
religious organizations
raised most of the funds
made available to the Soviet
Union to secure the release
of the so-called Siberian Se-
ven, a group of Christian
Pentecostals. Among the
contributors were the
Christian Legal Society, the
American Jewish Commit-
tee and ' the National Inter-
religious Task Force on
Soviet Jewry.
The Pentecostals took
refuge in the Americal Em-
bassy in Moscow in 1978 to
escape religious persecu-
tion. They vowed to remain
in the Embassy until they

-

and their families were
allowed to emigrate to a
country where they could
practice their religion.
On April 12, six of the
Soviet religious dissi-
dents left the American
Embassy in Moscow and
returned to their homes
in Chernogorsk, in
southern Siberia. The six
included Peter and
Augustina Vashchenko
and their daughters Luba
and Lilya and Maria

Chmykalov and herson
Timothy. The families
will now apply for emig-
ration from the Soviet
Union.
Their departure from the
Embassy was apparently in
response to the Soviet's
granting of an exit visa to
Lidiya Vashchenko, one of
the Pentecostals, who ar-
rived in Israel on April 10.
Lidiya will be forwarding
official invitations for the
rest of her family to join her.

According to Mr. Buz-
zard, a fund has been estab-
lished to cover the cost of
exit visas, renunciation of
Soviet citizenship fees and
air fare.

- Meanwhile, Illinois Sen.
Charles Percy sent a letter
to Deputy Prime Minister
Andrei Gromyko on behalf
of Abe Stolar, a native of
Chicago, whose application
for emigration has been de-
nied since 1975.

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*********** * **************** I
SENIOR ADULT
CAMPERS REUNION

Wednesday, May 11 — 1:00 p.m.

JIMMY PRENTIS MORRIS BUILDING

Meet and "SHMOOZE" with old friends
about the good times
at The Butzel Conference Center of Camp Tamarack.

REFRESHMENTS * ENTERTAINMENT
* See Movies about Camp *

• Hear about the exciting New
Program called "Vacation
for Seniors" in a fabulous
get-a-way for "youngsters"
60 and over.

• Meet the new Director

• Staff will be available to
answer questions.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME —
Campers, Friends, Guests

CALL 967.4030

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

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