Zand Reported in Misery, Despair over Possibility He May Not Get Exit Visa

Prof. Mikhail Zand is experiencing “despair and misery” over the possibility that he may not obtain permission to leave the Soviet Union for Israel, according to Prof. Herbert Paper of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, a friend of the Soviet Jewish scholar. Prof. Paper telephoned Prof. Zand in Moscow last night. He was told by Prof. Zand that after his application for an exit visa was again postponed last Friday for “an indefinite time,” he went to the Dutch Embassy and asked it to intervene on his behalf. The Dutch Embassy acts as the intermediary for Israel in the Soviet Union. However, Prof. Zand said the Embassy was not too encouraging. ” We now live in despair and misery,” Prof. Paper reported his friend told him. Prof. Zand also said that he had applied for Israeli citizenship under the amendment to Israeli immigration laws which permit the Interior Minister to confer Israeli citizenship in absentia on any Jews abroad who want it and are prevented from coming to Israel. Prof. Zand said if citizenship is granted it might encourage the Dutch Embassy to act on his behalf to persuade the Soviet authorities to allow him to leave. Prof. Paper reported that Prof. Zand expressed the view that this hoped-for intervention is his last chance to obtain an exit visa. Prof. Paper said that his conversation with his friend ended abruptly when their telephones were disconnected.