Roman Rutman, Levi Yoffe and Prof. Boris Mosheson were among the several hundred Soviet emigrants who arrived here early this morning by E1 A1 Jumbo jet from Vienna. Special large teams of Absorption Ministry officials were on hand to help process their arrival and arrange their transportation to immigrant centers, new housing and ulpanim.
Rutman, Yoffe, Prof. Mosheson and perhaps others of today’s arrivals were exempted from the Soviet education-equivalent exit tax. Rutman, a top Moscow mathematician and activist, said he believed the exemptions for some activists did not represent a change in basic Soviet policy, only a reflection of the Soviet awareness of Western press scrutiny. “Our departure is more of an exhibitionist act than of any change of policy,” he said, adding that he felt there would be a new policy only after Communist Party chief Leonid I. Brezhnev’s upcoming visit to Washington.
Yoffe, who was a prominent Hebrew teacher in Moscow as well as a leading activist, reported that hundreds of Moscow Jews–mainly youths–are studying Hebrew, and that their number is gradually increasing. Prof. Mosheson, a mathematician, is considering a researcher’s position offered by Tel Aviv University. Today’s arrivals included Jews from Moscow, Riga, Wilna, Kiev, Bukhara and the Georgian Republic.
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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.
