113 Soviet Jews Issue Appeal for Permission to Emigrate to Israel

One hundred thirteen more Soviet Jews have issued appeals for permission to emigrate to Israel, according to reports received here. In Moscow, three petitions were signed by, respectively, 45 and 10 Moscow Jews and 30 Latvian Jews and sent to the Supreme Soviet, In Riga, Latvia, late last month, it has been disclosed, 28 Jews urged foreign scientists at a chemical convention to “raise your voice in the defense of our rights and render us assistance in our age-long dream to unite with our relations in Israel. The letter from the 10 Muscovites–who included Boris Zukerman, physicist; Josif Kerler, Yiddish poet, and Klara Vinokurova, widow of Yiddish writer Leon Lermon–contended that if their plea was not acceptable to the Kremlin, they should under the law be arrested for sedition.

The 28 physicians, architects and engineers who made the Riga plea included Mrs. Silva Zalmanson, one of the first group of eight Soviet Jews arrested in mid-June on charges of attempting to hijack a Soviet plane in Leningrad. The London Telegraph said today that a group of Muscovite Jews have proposed that the Supreme Soviet pass a law guaranteeing repatriation of Soviet Jews to Israel. (In Jerusalem, Minister-Without-Portfolio Israel Galili said of the three Moscow petitions: “This spontaneous appeal is proof of the daring and of the severe distress of our brothers in the Soviet Union. Despite the discouraging reports of the steps which the Soviet authorities have recently taken against Jews desiring exit visas to Israel, the plea goes out–and not only from the State of Israel–for understanding and response to Jews anxious to be reunited with their families, a principle which has also been affirmed by the Soviet authorities on more than one occasion.”)