Three Jewish scientists in Moscow who are no longer employed have asked Prof. Yuval Neeman, president of Tel Aviv University, to help them obtain exit visas so they can come to Israel. The three, who described themselves as engaged in theoretical research in physics and chemistry, charged that the Soviet authorities were treating them like “a material possession upon which an embargo can be imposed to prevent it being supplied to one country or another.”
The appeal for help was contained in a letter to Prof. Neeman which was read over a telephone connection with Moscow. The letter was signed by Boris Einsbinder, a staff member of the Physical Chemistry Institute of the Soviet Academy of Science; Vladimir Roginsky, a former staff member of the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics; and Serge Gurewitz, a former staff member of the Institute of Nuclear Science.
They said their applications for exit visas were rejected on the official grounds that “experts such as you are needed by the Soviet Union. We cannot supply experts to Israel, a nation hostile to the Soviet Union.” The scientists said that the rejection on this basis “is absurd to the extreme as we are theoreticians and our work has an abstract character and no applicable value.”
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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.
