Leadership Parley to Focus on Soviet Jewry Issue in Light of Stepped Up Persecutions, Anti-zionist R

Naum Alshansky, a Soviet Jew who earned one of the USSR’s highest awards for service in World War II, will be guest speaker at a luncheon that will be a highlight of a major “Leadership Conference” to be sponsored by the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry Dec. 7 at the Park Avenue Synagogue.

The conference chairman, Kings County District Attorney Eugene Gold, said the parley will take a hard, close look at the directions and goals of the Soviet Jewry movement against the backdrop of the UN General Assembly anti-Zionist resolution and the stepped up persecution of Jews in the Soviet Union. Gold said that the “Leadership Conference” is particularly timely in view of the widespread belief that the USSR will use the infamous UN resolution to justify its anti-Jewish policies and to create more difficult obstacles in the path of emigration.

Alshansky, who attained the rank of colonel in 26 years of military service, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in World War II. In April, 1971, he and his wife. Klara, and their two children applied to emigrate to Israel. He was stripped of his rank and deprived of his officer’s pension immediately following his application.

Authorities began a concerted campaign of harassment aimed at Alshansky and his colleagues Capt. Genadoy Kipnis and Col. Efim Davidovich, all of Minsk. This campaign culminated in threats of a major trial in May, 1973. More than 100 Jewish activists were allegedly implicated in the trial, which was suspended only after publicity in the West drew loud protests against the planned persecution. Kipnis was permitted to emigrate after eight months in prison. Awaiting trial, Alshansky and Davidovich were detained and kept under constant surveillance.

In March, 1974, in a dramatic gesture, Alshansky formally renounced his Soviet citizenship and handed back his medals, expressing his protest at official refusals to allow him to emigrate to Israel. The gesture was made at the reception rooms of the Supreme Soviet Presidium in Moscow. This year, the Alshansky family was finally permitted to emigrate to Israel, where they now reside. He is touring the United States under the sponsorship of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.