Nixon’s Help is Sought for Soviet Jewish Scientists

A delegation of eminent scientists, including eight Nobel Laureates will attempt to go to the White House to meet with President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the hopes of having the United States government intervene on behalf of Soviet Jewish scientists. Mrs. Ruth Levine. Executive Director of the Committee and spokeswoman for the International Board of Sponsors of a Scientific seminar to be held in Moscow issued a statement from the Committee and the International Board decrying the outrage committed by the Soviet authorities and their attempt to quash scientific exchange.

The scientific seminar which was organized a year ago, will coincide with President Nixon’s visit to Moscow at the end of June. With the President’s forthcoming visit, Jewish activists in the USSR have stepped up their efforts to publicize their plight and the refusal to the Soviet officials to let them emigrate to Israel. The demonstrations have met with arrests and detention until the close of President Nixon’s visit. Soviet officials fear, according to reports, that the Seminar will draw further attention to the situation concerning Soviet Jews.

Dr. Alexander Voronel, a renowned physicist, at whose home the seminar is to be held, was taken into custody by the Soviet Security police and warned that if he were to continue with the plans for the seminar, he would face six months to three years in prison or five years in exile. He was later released. Other Soviet Jewish scientists, participants in the seminar, have received papers from the Soviet authorities instructing them to report for military duty. The scientists, some 18 in number, have ignored the order and gone into hiding in the country. They are now being hunted by the KGB, the Soviet secret police.