Moscow Mayor Says Jews Working in Defense Industry Will Not Be Permitted to Emigrate

The Mayor of Moscow, V.F. Promyslov, told a news conference today that Jews in the Moscow district who are not engaged in sensitive military work may apply for and obtain visas to emigrate to Israel. The Mayor made his statement in reply to a question after he had spoken on Moscow’s potential growth. It is believed to be the first time that a Soviet official had publicly said at a forum like a news conference that the government will not permit defense industry employes to emigrate. The restriction has been made known indirectly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was informed.

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Promyslov, however, neglected to say that, unlike the understanding in the United States of classified defense personnel, the Soviet defense industry embraces a wide variety of occupations including chemists, physicists, engineers and mathematicians not directly identified with military projects. Many Jews hold such occupations, knowledgeable sources here said.

Besides the enormously complicated bureaucratic documentation required from a potential emigre, an applicant must obtain an acceptable reference from his employer. Such an act is looked upon as treason and the employe loses his job. Left without visible support, he becomes a “parasite” subject to penalties.

TOLD TO TALK TO JEWS ON THE STREETS

Promyslov, who is a construction engineer and Moscow’s Mayor since 1963, told newsmen at the press center set up for the summit conference, that Moscow had “only” 250,000 Jews. Many of those who want to leave can do so but like any other country, he said, the Soviet Union cannot give permission to those who work in the defense industry or some other secret activities. In any case, he added, anyone who wants to know about Jews need just walk the streets of Moscow and talk to the Jews.

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The Mayor added that he understood that in Israel there are 300 Jews who wish to return to the Soviet Union but are being prevented by Israeli restrictions. According to a report issued only last week by the US Congress, only about 50 of the approximately 13,000 Jews who had emigrated from the Soviet Union to Israel last year have asked to return; of these, only 11 are known to have successfully returned to the USSR.

The report is based on a study made by a sub-committee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee comprising Rep. Jonathan B. Bingham (D.N.Y.), chairman, and Rep. Seymour Halpern (R.N.Y.). They visited Israel and Austria April 2-8 to investigate the recent increase in “refugees” from the Soviet Union emigrating to Israel. Most of the emigres leaving the Soviet Union stop over in a refugee center near Vienna before departing for other countries.

GROWING DESIRE TO EMIGRATE

Despite the penalties of job loss and classification as “parasite,” the desire among Jews to emigrate is spreading aid now includes intellectuals and scientists, a knowledgeable source well acquainted with Moscow told the JTA. Some wish to leave, he said, because of Zionist convictions, others because they underwent an anti-Semitic experience. But the much wider belief is that anti-Jewish feeling in the Soviet Union is preventing cultural activities for Jews like that encouraged for other nationalities.

All this, JTA was told, has a snowball effect not necessarily involving anti-Semitism directly. People see neighbors vacate their homes and wonder why Jews can emigrate but not non-Jews. Jews aiming for higher jobs are discouraged by employers who fear that they may wish to emigrate and thereby cause a personnel problem, JTA was told.