Boris Kochubiyevsky, a 35-year-old Jewish engineer from Kiev who once said in a letter to Kremlin leaders that he would go to Israel even if he had to walk there barefoot, arrived at Lydda Airport today with another large group of Jewish emigres from the USSR.
He told newsmen at the airport that threats and beatings were a daily occurrance at the labor camp where he said he was incarcerated with hardened criminals although his alleged offense was political. He said the camp authorities encouraged the mistreatment of Jewish prisoners by their fellow inmates.
Kochubiyevsky was the first Russian Jew to publicly demand civil and emigration rights for his fellow Jews. His outspokeness got him a three-year prison sentence for allegedly slandering the Soviet Union. He was arrested in Dec. 1968, tried and sentenced on May 16, 1969 and was released from a forced labor camp only 18 days ago. Kochubiyevsky left his wife and daughter behind in Russia.
He plans to resume his activities for Russian Jews here. Tomorrow he will participate in a 24-hour hunger strike at the Wailing Wall by relatives and friends of Jews in Russian prisons.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
