Latvian Jew Given Visa to Prevent Him from Testifying in Riga Trial

Mrs. Rivka Aleksandrovich, whose daughter Ruth is scheduled to go on trial in Riga on May 24 for “anti-Soviet activities” said last night that another Latvian Jew was issued an emigration visa Saturday to prevent him from testifying for her daughter and the three other Riga defendants-to-be. Mrs. Aleksandrovich, in the United States for three weeks under the auspices of the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry, had reported several earlier such emigration approvals a few weeks ago in Israel, where she now lives. She made her new disclosure here on the weekly two hour interfaith program “Religion on the Line” on WMCA Radio. It was her first broadcast interview in the U.S. Mrs. Aleksandrovich, who arrived here yesterday, called on worldwide “public opinion” to help effect the release of Soviet Jewish prisoners. Asked if such protests really persuade the Soviet leaders, she replied: “Who knows? But I’m sure they’re people–how can they not react?” She recalled that at the unprecedented sit-in at the Supreme Soviet in Moscow–“For 100 Jews to sit in silence, it means something”–a Kremlin minister promised that emigration strictures would be eased, and “the minister kept his word.” The 47-year-old language professor said she was proud of her daughter, who had voluntarily become “a deeply religious person.”

Asked about the situation now of Maj. Mark Dymshitz and Edvard Kuznetsov, Mrs. Aleksandrovich commented: “I can’t go into details, but it’s very terrible…I for myself would prefer death.” A member of the program’s panel, Rabbi Abraham Baer, coordinator of the AJCSJ, added that Dymshitz and Kuznetsov, along with other Soviet prisoners given heavy sentences, were being fed the caloric regimen fit for a 9-year-old child. Thomas E. Bird, professor of Russian language and literature at Queens College, author of “Aspects of Religion in the Soviet Union” and a Roman Catholic, said the problems of the Soviet Jewish “prisoners of conscience” were also the problems of non-Jews. Rabbi James Rudin, assistant director for intireligious affairs at the American Jewish Committee and co-host of “Religion on the Line.” told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency this morning that Mrs. Aleksandrovich’s permission to enter the U.S. had been held up by “bureaucratic red tape” in Washington that was cut quickly last Friday following telephone calls by AJ Committee officials Hyman Bookbinden and Jerry Goodman. Earlier yesterday, Mrs. Aleksandrovich addressed a rally at the Park East Synagogue which was attended by 1,500 persons and sponsored by the American Committee on Soviet Jewry and the New York Committee on Soviet Jewry.