Soviet Jewish activists planning a three-day symposium on Jewish culture in Moscow this month have been warned by a Soviet Culture Ministry official that the event would be illegal but planned to go ahead with it anyway, according to reports received here today.
The sponsors had issued a call to Jewish scholars throughout the world to come to Moscow to participate and four American scholars have made plans to accept the invitation. The symposium, scheduled to open Dec. 21, has 13 sponsors.
According to the report, the warning was made by Deputy Culture Minister Vladimir Popov during a lengthy meeting at the Ministry yesterday with five of the symposium sponsors, including Benjamin Fain, a Soviet physicist who is chairman of the symposium. Popov told the Jewish activists that preparing and organizing the meeting was in direct contradiction to Soviet law but reportedly did not say how it would be illegal.
In response to the invitation, an American Academic Committee was organized and chose Marvin Herzog of Columbia University, Baruch Levine of New York University, Jacob Neusner of Brown University and Marshall Sklare of Brandeis University to attend. They were among 20 Jewish scholars from the United States, Israel. Sweden and Britain planning to attend. The report from Moscow did not indicate whether the Soviet Union would give them visas to come.
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