The Jewish Board of Deputies reported today that seven more Soviet Jews have been arrested, apparently in connection with an alleged plane hijacking at the Leningrad airport June 15, in the wake of which eight Soviet Jews were arrested. The board said the new arrests “support the previous indications that the ‘hijacking’…was an attempt to create pressures on those Jews in Russia attempting to bring their plight to the ears of the world.” The board urged the Soviet government to reconsider its policy toward Soviet Jews wishing to emigrate to Israel. The seven reported arrested, most of them from Riga, were identified by the board as Leiba Girshevich Knoch; his wife, Meri Mozysolna Mendelevich Knoch; her father, Josef Mozusovich Mendelevich; Anatoly Adolofovteh Airman, Boris Pestner, Itzhak Zalmanson and Wolf Yosifovich Zalmanson. The last two named are brothers of Mrs. Silva Kuznetsov, who was arrested with her husband in Leningrad last month.
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