Col. Thomas Stafford. an American astronaut who will participate in a joint space flight with Soviet astronauts next year, has been urged to intervene on behalf of a retired Jewish Red Army officer and his family who want to emigrate to Israel, it was disclosed here today) An appeal “to use your influence and prestige with the Soviet authorities and ask that they allow me and my family to go to Israel” was contained in a letter to Stafford from Col. Naum Olshansky of Minsk, Byelorussia.
Olshansky, who holds the rank of “Hero of in Soviet Union” suggested to Stafford that “if you were to say that you could not make the planned Joint space flight until a glaring injustice is righted. It would have an immediate and beneficial effect.”
The former Red Army officer, writing in Russian to the American who understands the language. explained his plight. “On 18th Aug. 1971. I and my entire family applied for exit visas to go to Israel,” he wrote. “As soon as our applications had been handed In. I was reduced to the ranks and deprived of my officer’s pension…The KGB acting through agents, have suggested that we should withdraw our applications in exchange for the restoration of my pension, and we have flatly refused to do so.”
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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.
