The Jewish Defense League has issued a statement saying that “we heartily applaud” the firing of several bullets into an apartment building in the Soviet UN Mission’s residence in the Riverdale section of New York last Friday but denied any connection with the Jewish Armed Resistance, the group that claimed responsibility for the shootings.
At the same time, the Soviet Mission to the UN complained to the world body about the incident which it termed “a terrorist act.” In a letter to the U.S. Mission to the UN, the Soviets demanded that the U.S. identify and punish those responsible for firing two to four shots into the lobby of the apartment building in the Soviet compound and pay the Soviet Mission for damages.
Police who investigated said that two to four bullets were fired into the lobby of the compound’s apartment building. There were no injuries. The Soviet letter, however, noted that one of the bullets passed very close to a Mission employe who was in the lobby.
Shortly after the firings a woman telephoned the press to say that the Jewish Armed Resistance took responsibility for the act. She said it was to dramatize the plight of Marina Tiemkin, a 16 year-old Soviet Jewish girl, who was prevented from leaving the USSR with her father. Dr. Alexander Tiemkin, who is now living in Israel.
The Soviet letter to the UN charged that last Friday’s shootings was the third time that a building belonging to the USSR in New York had been fired upon and so far the persons responsible have not been arrested.
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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.
