Jewish Activists Under Arrest As Nixon Tours USSR

Mass arrests of Soviet Jewish activists continued over the weekend even while President Nixon was conferring, sightseeing and socializing with Kremlin leaders on his third summit trip to the USSR. The arrests, in some cases accompanied by physical brutality, were intended to avert demonstrations that might embarrass the Soviet regime by calling attention to the deteriorating situation of Jews seeking to emigrate during the Presidential visit, according to Sheila Woods reporting from Moscow for the American Jewish Press Association and other sources.

One such demonstration, a seminar of world reknowned scientists to have opened tomorrow in the Moscow apartment of Dr. Alexander. Voronel, was cancelled for all practical purpose by virtue of the fact that most of its sponsors — including Profs. Voronel and Vitaly Rubin–have been placed under arrest. The seminar had been planned a year ago to dramatize the plight of Soviet Jewish scientists who have been ousted from their positions and denied work after applying for exit visas. It was only by chance that the dates of the seminar and the Presidential visit coincided.

On the brighter side was the news that Prof. Benjamin G. Levich, a noted electro-chemist and former member of the Soviet Academy of Science, has been told by the authorities that he and his wife, Tanya, will be given exit visas some time next year.

Meanwhile. Soviet Jews are trying to call their condition to the President’s attention. Ten of them went on a hunger strike in Minsk last Wednesday and will continue it through tomorrow when Nixon visits that city. Four other Jewish activists are reportedly on a hunger strike in Odessa.

The arrests of Jewish activists and members of their families — persons whose names are well known abroad — was surprising in view of the purported Soviet sensitivity to world opinion, Woods reported. Dr. Voronel was arrested last Monday and according to Jewish sources, security police have since prevented his wife from entering their apartment. Prof. Alexander Lerner was arrested Friday after the KGB (secret police) broke down his doors. Five persons were arrested earlier, Woods reported, as they left separately from Lerner’s apartment. The five are Irinka Brailovsky; Lydia Azbel, Elena Polsky; Aleksandr Dropkin; and Lucia Lunts. The women are the wives of Jewish activists presently under house arrest. Mrs. Polsky was reported to have been beaten up by the KGB men.

Vitaly Rubin, a prominent sinologist, was arrested at his home last Thursday. He had been warned before then that he would be charged with treason if he went ahead with the scientific seminar in the Voronel flat.