A 31-year-old Kiev-born Jew now living in Riga has written to Premier Golda Meir for aid in emigrating to Israel with his wife. The writer, Valerly Aleksandrovich Portnoy, said his two applications to the Soviet authorities had been rejected because of “the absence of material and moral dependence on the relatives in Israel,” Mr. Portnoy said. The facts, he continued, were otherwise, as “we, apart from material assistance, constitute a single spiritual whole with the relatives–we correspond regularly in the Hebrew language, which is not an official language in the USSR and the study of which here is connected with difficulties.” Mr. Portnoy said that he and his wife and their relatives were “united by a general national tradition, which we shall be able to keep only in Israel, as well as the national history and culture of our people.”
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.
