Nineteen prisoners in Camp 19 of the Potma prison in Soviet Mordovia–10 of them non-Jews–went on a hunger strike of indefinite duration starting last Saturday over the issue of admittance of visitors. The mother of Boris Penson was denied permission to see him or to see Mikhail Shepshelovich in place of his ill mother, according to Jewish sources. The Jews on strike are Anatoly Altman, Boris Penson, Mikhail Shepshelovich, Aleksander Galperin, Gary Kirshner, Anatoly Goldfeld, Lev Naumovich Yagman, Yuri Vudka and an unidentified man. The commandant of the camp is surnamed Yusov.
The sources also reported that in Kovno, Lithuania, the Deputy Mayor in charge of cultural affairs denied a group of Jews a license to teach Hebrew at the local synagogue, saying it was to be used only for prayer. But he agreed to allow the classes to be held at the Hall of Culture of the local trade unions. Sixty-five Jews signed up for the classes. The teachers were then told they needed diplomas, which they do not have, and offered to assign a Hebrew-speaking priest to the classes in their place.
The teachers agreed, but were then told the classes could not proceed if more than half the students held exit visas for Israel–a stricture that has been used by the Soviet authorities before in such cases. “We cannot run classes here to prepare experts for the State of Israel,” the applicants were told. The matter has not been resolved.
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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.
