Herut Defies Board of Deputies on Rallies Against Soviet Music Festival

The Herut movement said today that it reserved the right to take any action it deemed appropriate within the framework of non-violent protest against the treatment of Soviet Jews when the Soviet Music Festival opens here later this month. The Herut statement was in effect a defiance of the Board of Deputies of British Jews which is seeking to coordinate the activities of all Jewish groups in connection with the music festival.

Herut said “it is not prepared to accept the principle advanced by the Board that the Board has the right to limit the activities of any Jewish organization, or to condemn beforehand any form of non-violent protest on behalf of Soviet Jews.” The statement contended that plans for “silent vigils with or without placards or posters are, in themselves insufficient and totally ineffective.”

SOVIET JEWS CRITICIZE ABRASIMOV

Three Russian Jews who have applied to the Supreme Soviet to release them from their Soviet citizenship have publicly criticized Piotr Abrasimov, the Soviet Ambassador to France, for cancelling the projected visit to the USSR of the French Socialist Party leader Francoise Mitterand. Abrasimov two months ago advised Mitterand that his visit would not be welcomed at this time because of his outspoken support of Soviet Jews against the education head tax.

Jewish sources in the Soviet Union said an open letter to Abrasimov was signed by Gregory Goldstein and Isaiah Goldstein, both engineers and Elisabeth Bikova, a physicist. They noted that Abrasimov said in his letter to Mitterand that Soviet citizens who emigrate must compensate the State for the expense of their higher education. They pointed cut that large sums are demanded “independent of the number of years we have spent working after graduation” and asked Abrasimov “Why did you leave out from your letter to Mitterand this aspect of our having worked already to repay the investment? Who owes money to whom, Citizen Abrasimov?”