Shapiro Appeals to Nixon to Help Wife Obtain Visa to Attend His Trial

Gavriel Shapiro is appealing directly to President Nixon to help his wife Judy obtain a Russian visa so that she can attend his trial in Moscow opening July 26. The Jewish activist who married Judy Silver of Cincinnati in Moscow last June 8 dictated a letter to Nixon over the telephone from Moscow today, Mrs. Shapiro told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He also dictated a letter to Premier Golda Meir of Israel, requesting that she send his wife the original documents affirming the Israeli citizenship granted him in absentia a year ago, so that she can bring them with her to Moscow.

“She must be with me in my hour of need,” Shapiro said in his letter to Nixon. “If I shall be imprisoned for a long period of time, we shall be separated,” he wrote. Mrs. Shapiro told the JTA that her husband said it was essential that she attend his trial. But, she said, she has had no word from the Soviet Consulate where she filed her visa application last June 28. She said she has been in “constant touch” with Richard Davies, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European Affairs who is handling the matter of her visa. Mrs. Shapiro said she has had no acknowledgement of the seven telegrams she sent to President Nixon since her return to the US last month.

Mrs. Shapiro said her husband’s request for his Israeli citizenship papers stressed that he needed the originals, not copies. He also asked Mrs. Meir to send the citizenship papers of his friend Mark Nashpitz another Jewish activist who has been imprisoned and is awaiting trial. No date has been set for the Nashpitz trial. Shapiro was arrested June 12 but was subsequently released pending trial. Mrs. Shapiro said she reaches him by phone at the home of friends because his telephone has been out of order for months. She said she thought their conversations were taped.