Mrs. Aleksandrovich Discusses Plight of Her Daughter with Soviet Embassy Official

Mrs. Rivka Aleksandrovich whose daughter Ruth is imprisoned and awaiting trial in Riga, visited the Soviet Embassy here today and was received by an attache with whom she discussed the case. Mrs. Aleksandrovich arrived in Israel only last month with her 18 year-old son, Avigdor, leaving behind her husband who chose to remain in Riga during their daughter’s trial. According to reliable sources, the trials of Jews in Riga. Leningrad and Kishinev will begin within the next week or ten days. Mrs. Aleksandrovich is stopping over in London on her way to the United States. She said her purpose was to arouse world opinion on behalf of her daughter and other Soviet Jews imprisoned because they wanted to go to Israel. She said she has heard nothing directly from her daughter since her arrest last October. Meanwhile 70 Jewish women, dressed in black, continued to demonstrate outside the Soviet Embassy, appealing for the release of Ruth Aleksandrovich. Silva Zalmanson, who was convicted in the Leningrad hijack trial and is serving a prison sentence, and Roiza Palatnik, a 35 year-old librarian imprisoned in Odessa last Dec. 1 after she applied for an exit visa. Discussing her plans with newsmen, Mrs. Aleksandrovich said she would remain in the U.S. during the Riga trial. “I feel and deeply believe that the only way that we can save the 39 young Jews arrested in different towns in the Soviet Union is world public opinion,” she said. Adding that she had “absolutely no feelings against the Soviet Union. They want to persuade the world that we are enemies of Russia but we are not enemies.”