37 Released from Jail, 23 Remain

Jewish sources in the Soviet Union reported today that the 37 women among the 60 Jewish activists arrested in Moscow yesterday have all been released but were made to leave their identity cards behind when they left jail. They were told to pick up their cards today but the women from other cities were ordered to leave Moscow immediately and presumably were unable to collect their ID cards, the sources said. Twenty-three men are still in custody. Telephone inquiries about them are met with the reply. “We don’t know.”

It was also reported that the education head tax has been waived for Viktor Perelman, a Moscow Jewish Journalist who has received an exit visa, Jewish sources said that Perelman had refused to pay the tax demanded of him, the equivalent of $6000. His wife and nine-year-old daughter have been permitted to leave with him without paying the tax. Perelman was fired from the Literaturnaya Gazetta when he applied for a visa to go to Israel.

(In New York, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry reported today that in addition to Perelman four other Jews have received exit visas. They identified them as Viktor Yakhout, Dmitri Simis, Pavel Lvovski, and one surnamed Zabraski. The NCSJ also reported that two of the Jews from Kharkov arrested yesterday among the 60 were returned home and sentenced to 15 days in jail. In addition, Mrs. Viktor Lapidus, the wife of one of the demonstrators arrested yesterday in Moscow during a sit-in at the Supreme Soviet, was arrested and given a 15-day jail term. The NCSJ also reported that police are continuing their surveillance of homes of Jewish activists.)

According to reports reaching London from Vienna, Raiza Palatnik has arrived in the Austrian capital en route to Israel. The 36-year-old Jewish librarian from Odessa, a university graduate, was permitted to leave the USSR without paying a head tax.