Mrs. Meir Labels As ‘idiotic’ Story in Magazine That She Turned over Jewish Names to Stalin

An editor of Commentary, the magazine published by the American Jewish Committee, said today he had “no comment” on a $3 million libel suit filed against the periodical by former Israeli Premier Golda Meir He explained the issue was now in the hands of the lawyers. Mrs. Meir filed a suit in Manhattan Federal Court last Friday charging that an article in the August 1974 edition of Commentary was “false and malicious” when it claimed that she turned over a list of Jews to Stalin more than 25 years ago.

In the article, “Notes on American Innocence, the author, Lev Navrozov, a Soviet Jewish emigre, alleged that while Mrs. Meir was Israel’s Ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1948-49 she gave Stalin, at his request, a list of Soviet Jews who wanted to serve in the war of independence. Navrozov said that those on the list were arrested by the secret police and sent to concentration camps where many died. He said his information was based on interviews with concentration camp survivors.

‘NOT ONE GRAIN OF TRUTH’

In her suit, Mrs. Meir noted that she protested to Commentary in February that there was “not even one grain of truth in this story,” In Jerusalem, a spokesman for Mrs. Meir said that “Mrs. Meir wants to stress she has no intention of making money for herself out of this suit.” The spokesman said Mrs. Meir would turn over any money she received to a fund for the settlement of Soviet Jews in Israel.

Named as defendants in the suit are Navrozov, the American Jewish Committee, and Norman Podhoretz, editor of Commentary. Podhoretz is on vacation and could not be reached for comment.

In an interview today in Israel with Yediot Achrondt, Mrs. Meir said she had no wish to enter in a dispute with the AJCommittee since “I do appreciate” the organization. She said she only agreed to file the libel suit when Commentary refused to apologize for Navrozov’s allegation. She said she was also worried that the article would be accepted later as history. “What would happen in ten years time when a student will stumble over this horrible charge and will find no denial?” Mrs. Meir asked.

“In any case, the whole story is idiotic,” Mrs. Meir declared to Yediot. She noted that the time referred to was 1948, “not now when Russian Jews openly speak of their desire to go to Israel. But then, did we have direct contact with Jews? Did the police enable Jews to approach us? Didn’t we know that we were listened to? We scarcely spoke there. We always jotted notes. And here comes this writer and writes of handing over a list to Stalin.”

NEVER MET STALIN

Mrs. Meir asserted she never met Stalin personally although she was once near him during a celebration marking the Russian revolution when the diplomats’ area was near Stalin’s platform.

Asked about the so-called Israeli-Russian honeymoon during her period as Israel’s Ambassador to Moscow, Mrs. Meir said: “All I can recall is that the Jewish wife of Foreign Minister Molotov told me in juicy Lithuanian Yiddish that she prayed for Israel and if it will be good for Israel it will be good for all Jews in the world. That was that. No more meetings with her.” Mrs. Meir said that only later did she learn that Mrs. Molotov was exiled from Moscow. (From Combined Tel Aviv-New York JTA wire service.)