Wife, Son of Peretz Markish Stage Silent Demonstration; Kukui Appeal Postponed

Mrs. Esther Markish and David Markish, the widow and son of the Soviet Yiddish poet Peretz Markish, who was killed in 1952 in the Stalin purges, staged an eight-hour silent demonstration in Moscow within recent days, it was reported today by Richard Maass, chairman of the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry. Mrs. Markish and her son, who have been denied emigration permits without explanation, held their vigil outside the Council of Ministers building after cabling President Nikolai V. Podgorny about their plight. The Markishes wore crude yellow Stars of David on their clothing to emphasize the situation of Soviet Jews. They said they were in front of the Council of Ministers because they did not know the location of Peretz Markish’s grave.

Maass also reported that the appeal of Soviet Jewish prisoner Valeriy Kukui, scheduled for Aug. 10, was postponed at the request of his new attorney. The date for the new appeal was not immediately known. Meanwhile, one of the Jews facing trial in Sverdlovsk, Vladimir Markman, has brought judicial proceedings there against the judge in the Kishinev trial of nine Jews, charging that the judge changed the meaning of his testimony to make it sound in support of the prosecution. Also reported by Maass was the case of the Zaslovsky-Malkov family of Kemerova, Siberia. On July 9, he said, the family was promised visas to Israel, but four days later was advised they had been cancelled and that the family could leave only after the Middle East situation was settled. The Zaslovsky-Malkovs appealed to the head of the local ovir (visa office), a Mr. Vesovoy, who told them: “You have no rights. All the rights are ours.”