Plans to Hold Moscow Symposium Proceeding Despite Harassment

Plans by a group of Soviet Jewish scholars to hold a symposium in Moscow Dec. 21 on Jewish culture in the USSR are proceeding despite threats and harassment by the Soviet authorities. The Soviet secret police has confiscated all materials related to the event. The apartments of the organizers have been searched and dire warnings have been sounded by Soviet officials.

But the four organizers are determined to go ahead. A declaration to that effect which described the action of the KGB, was sent to the Committee of Concerned Scientists here. It said the police confiscated some 40 papers prepared for delivery at the seminar, many written by Western scholars who plan to attend.

The organizers said preparations for the symposium were completely open. But, according to the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. Deputy Minister of Culture Vladimir Popov warned that the symposium is “in violation of Soviet law” and was banned because “it would express a narrow Zionistic and nationalistic point of view.” The Soviet news agency Tass accused the organizers of “trying to instigate hostility among Soviet nationalities.”

Commenting on these developments, Eugene Gold, chairman of the NCSJ, said “It is obvious this warning is an attempt by Soviet authorities not only to prevent the symposium but reflects their attitude toward the Helsinki Final Act, signed over a year ago, which guarantees the rights of minorities to free expression of their cultural heritage.” Dr. H. Eugene Stanley of Boston University, co-chairman of the Committee of Concerned Scientists, expressed dismay at the interference by Soviet police in a purely scholarly undertaking.

20 OFFERED VISA ‘BRIBES’

Meanwhile, the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry reported that 20 participants in a regularly held Jewish cultural seminar in Vilna, Soviet Lithuania, were offered exit visas on condition that they testify that the seminar is an anti-Soviet activity. The participants flatly refused and expressed fear that the authorities were planning anew to break up unofficial seminars, the GNYCSJ reported.

QUESTIONNAIRE BEING DISTRIBUTED

The 34 queries include, “What would your reaction be if you were to experience discrimination based on your nationality at work or in the course of your professional activities?” “Do you consider the abolition of the item ‘nationality’ from Soviet internal passports desirable?”; “Are you familiar with Jewish history?”; “How do you relate to Judaism as a religion?”; “Given the opportunity, with no hindering factors, would you attend a synagogue?”; “What is your attitude toward the emigration of Jews to Israel?”; “Do you consider it desirable for the Jews to continue to exist in the USSR as a separate nationality?”

An SSSJ spokesman said that 100.0 Soviet Jews have already responded to the questionnaire and the hope is that at least 1500 will have responded by Dec. 21. The goal, he added, is not so much getting responses from activists but from the “silent sector.”