Fourteen prominent American scientists, including four Nobel Laureates, warned the Soviet Union yesterday that the enthusiasm of Western scientists for scientific exchange with the USSR “decreases in direct proportion to the increase in personal threats and punitive measures against Jewish activist Mark Azbel, a physics professor, and his colleagues.”
The warning followed Azbel’s press conference in Moscow at which he revealed that the KGB told him that it considered the weekly scientific seminars at his home were “an anti-Soviet action planned and led by the Israel intelligence service.” The seminar is held in Azbel’s apartment and attended by more than fifty Soviet Jewish scientists who have all been dismissed from their jobs as a consequence of applying for permission to emigrate to Israel.
In the warning, the American scientists repudiated the KGB allegation that the participants are “criminals and traitors.” They described the Moscow group as “highly respected scientists whose work is known and admired throughout the world.”
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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.
