The newspaper Maariv published today a copy of a letter purportedly written by a Jewish family in Moscow to President Nicola. Podgorny of the Supreme Soviet, demanding their right to immigrate to Israel “because we feel ourselves spiritually and emotionally part of that state.”
According to Maariv, the letter was sent to President Podgorny in April. The paper claimed that it obtained the copy and a photograph of the family of five from a tourist. The family was identified as Klizemer-Borochovitz, of 457-1 Novokuzminskaya Street, flat 72. Moscow. The letter was signed by A.J. Klizemer, B.J. Borochowitz, K.B. Borochowitz, K.B. Borochowitz, J.B. Borochowitz and Boris L. Shlein.
The letter was sharply critical of Soviet treatment of the Jews. According to the text published in Maariv, the family said it had been trying in vain since December to get permission to emigrate and continued: “We have been raised according to Jewish traditions. But under present conditions our children are deprived of the possibility of learning Hebrew and all other subjects that are needed to learn the great cultural heritage of our people. And this is because, unlike other nations in Soviet Russia, we are discriminated against. We are dreaming of going to settle in Israel. As citizens of Russia, in accordance with the basic laws of Russia which are opposed to racial discrimination, we have the full right to immigrate to Israel. We pray that the Soviet authorities will reveal an understanding of our peoples’ problems and that our request will be granted.”
(According to the Boston Globe, which received a copy of the letter from the Academic Committee on Soviet Jewry, three members of the family applied for exit permits on Dec. 30,1968, with the necessary “affidavit of invitation” to be reunited with their family in Israel. On June 16, they were informed that their application had been denied.
(The Boston Globe declared that the accusation voiced by these people, “once again underscores the discrimination against the Jewish minority behind the Iron Curtain, now abetted by pro-Arab policies of the Communist governments.”
(The paper declared that “the letter, one of the few of its kind to come to the attention of the West in recent months, is touchingly appealing and yet a bit defiant in its tone.)
The family applied for exit permits in order to be reunited with other family members in Israel in accordance with a declaration by Premier Alexei Kosygin in Paris in December. 1966, that Russian citizens who wished to leave their country to be reunited with their families abroad would receive permission to leave the Soviet Union.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
