Israel Zalmanson, 29, the youngest member of the Zalmanson family, who spent eight years in Soviet jails following the first Leningrad trial in 1970, arrived yesterday in Israel. Speaking in Hebrew, he said in a trembling, emotional voice that it is a wonderful feeling to be at last among relatives and friends in Israel.
“My heart is overflowing to be here,” he said, “and I can hardly speak.” Zalmanson said he was aware of the many letters of encouragement that were written to him but only a few of them reached him. This was so because the Soviet authorities are aware of the importance of such letters as morale boosters to prisoners and therefore relay very few.
Three more members of his family who were also jailed in 1970, are still languishing in Soviet prisons: his two brothers, Shmuel and Wulf, and his brother-in-law Eduard Kuzetsov. Kuznetsov’s wife is Silva Zalmanson, who had also been jailed in 1970 and released some two years ago. Silva Zalmanson, who now resides in Israel, waited in Vienna for her brother and accompanied him back here. Several ministers and a large delegation of the Public Committee for the Struggle of Soviet Jews greeted Israel Zalmanson at the Ben Gurion Airport.
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