Jewish sources in the Soviet Union report on a crackdown on Jewish activists there by the authorities, with more than 100 homes raided by KGB men in Moscow alone in the past month of Jews linked to the publications. “Jews in the USSR” and “Tarbut–The Cultural Report.”
These sources report that the homes of four of those most prominently connected with these two publications wore raided by the KGB shortly after the departure from the Soviet Union of the Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth. Immanuel Jacobovits on Dec. 24. He had been assured by top Soviet officials that efforts would be made to ensure Jewish cultural life in the USSR.
The homes raided belonged to Vladimir Prestin, Pavel Abromovitch. Ilya Essaf and Yosip Beygun. These sources said the KGB men acted on the explicit order of Public Prosecutor Tichonov, who is in charge of the file of the Jewish cultural publications.
These Jewish sources also report that a number of activists were detained by Soviet police in Moscow, also on the day of Jacobovits’ departure, after they held a quiet demonstration outside the Lenin Library in the Soviet capital. They stood in silence for 10 minutes in tribute to those sentenced to prison five years ago in the first Leningrad trial.
They issued a statement to the western press urging support against the repression of Jewish culture in the Soviet Union and against attempts to frighten the applicants for visas. The eight detainees, later released, included Prof. Mark Azbel, Prof, Alexander Lunts, Ilya Rubin and Vladimir Lazaris.
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.
