Naum Salansky, the 36-year-old Vilna physicist, who has been under close investigation on criminal charges for more than six months, is experiencing intensified harassment according to reports reaching the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ).
Brooklyn District Attorney and NCSJ chairman Eugene Gold remarked. “It seems that the danger to Salansky is acute. There is no doubt that he has been singled out for punishment by the Soviet authorities because of his activities as an organizer of the seminar in Vilnius and allowing lectures to take place in his home.”
A few weeks ago, members of the seminar were told to testify that the seminar was engaged in anti-Soviet activities so that they would be allowed to emigrate. Salansky reported that life for him has become a “nightmare. Even letters from my mother are interpreted as subversive material.”
Gold said. “The file against Salansky reportedly consists of appeals from his mother in Israel to various Soviet Government and Party officials and institutions. According to Soviet law he could be charged with ‘slandering the internal policies of the USSR’ and as the Soviet law code says, ‘the malicious dissemination of lies and slanders against the Soviet state.’ This offense is punishable by up to three years detention.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
