A spokesman for Sen, Robert P. Griffin, Republican of Michigan, said today that Prof. Mikhail Zand, a specialist in Arabic and Persian literature, his wife, two children and three relatives are expected to leave the Soviet Union for Israel within the coming week. The spokesman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the Zand family received exit visas on May 10 and were instructed to leave the Soviet Union within 10 days. This would indicate that they would have to be out of the Soviet Union one week from today. According to Griffin’s aide, Dr. Herbert Paper, a scholar of Near Eastern languages in the University of Michigan, said he had received similar information regarding Dr. Zand and his family. Prof. Paper has been in correspondence with Dr. Zand and has organized a letter writing campaign on behalf of the Soviet linguist who was fired from his job at the Institute for Eastern Studies in Moscow. Prof Hans Morgenthau of the City University of New York, according to Griffin’s office, participated in the campaign. State Department officials have informed Griffin that the responsible protest by Prof. Paper and his academic colleagues led to Dr. Zand’s release. Griffin had written Secretary of State William P. Rogers requesting that the State Department intervene on Dr. Zand’s behalf.
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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.
