The Soviet Embassy told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that it had no knowledge of a press report from Moscow that Soviet authorities have allowed 175 Jewish families to leave since last Wednesday without paying the heavy exit tax. Alexandr P. Yefstefyav, press counselor at the Embassy, said “The American press is our only source of information on this subject” when asked by the JTA if he could confirm the report that appeared today in the Washington Post. The Soviet official added: “This problem is so minute, so unimportant that they (the Soviet authorities in Moscow) don’t bother to inform us. It is only an issue with people in this country.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.