Some Activists Get Exit Visas on Eve of Nixon Moscow Visit

A number of Soviet Jewish activists have been given permission to emigrate to Israel before President Nixon arrives in Moscow, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry reported today. They include Boris Rubenshtein, 49, a Leningrad physicist; Itzhak Goitberg, 46, Kishinev mathematics professor; Alexander Galich, 55, of Moscow, composer of satiric songs widely circulated “underground” in Russia; and Alexander Korotukov of Kiev, a screenwriter.

The Soviet Union has granted approval to 10 young Moscow Jews to go to Budapest to train for the rabbinate at the seminary there, it was reported yesterday from Moscow. Rabbi Arthur Schneier, of New York, president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, reported the Soviet government decision after meeting with Petr Makartsev, deputy chairman of the Soviet Council for Religious Affairs. The candidates will be chosen by Soviet Jewish communities. Rabbi Schneier said he hoped the rabbinical candidates would be in Budapest by this fall.

Rubenshtein has been a leader in the emigration effort in Leningrad, the SSSJ said. Goitberg, as a corresponding member of the Moldavian. Academy of Sciences, is the second highest-ranking Soviet Jew in science to have applied for emigration. Prof. Benyamin Levich, whose request has been rejected, is considered the highest, the SSSJ said. Although never closely identified with the Jewish emigration movement. Galich has been formally accused by Soviet authorities of “inciting Jews to leave the USSR.” In his “Zionist songs,” Galich recounts that “My hands have grown thin from shaking hands goodbye.”