An expert in Russian history asserted today that “it is commonly known in Russia” that a number of Asian and European countries have an agreement with the Kremlin to return Soviet escapees, especially Jews seeking to emigrate, within 48 hours. Dr. David Korn, professor of Russian history and literature and chairman of the Russian and German Department at Noward University here, identified some of those countries as Iran, Turkey and Finland. He spoke at a news conference at which Dr. Isaac Franck, executive vice president of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, described the alleged June 15 attempted hijacking of a Soviet airliner by Leningrad Jews as a “fabrication” akin to the 1948 Jewish “doctors’ plot” to kill Stalin. “This attempt to strangle the yearning of many Jews to go to Israel and to kill off any public expression of this yearning by the fabrication of a ‘Jewish plot’ is not an unfamiliar pattern,” Dr. Franck said. Dr. Franck also said that the JCC opposes the Administration’s District of Columbia Crime Bill because its provisions for “no-knock” entry by the police, pre-trial detention and wiretapping recall “painful historical memories” of Nazi Germany.
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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.
