Zionist Arrests in Soviet Russia

About 15 Communists suspected of membership of the Russian Heholuz Organisation were arrested in Moscow between April 14th. and 21st., the Foreign Delegation of the Zionist Socialist Party of the Soviet Union at Tel Aviv informed the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to-day. All the suspects received preliminary notice from the G.P.U. that they must leave within the next few days for exile in Central Asia. Several Zionist Socialists, including Leib Rothauser, who is very ill, were arrested during February at Samara after being confined in “minus” (isolated spots away from contact with Jewish populations). Another Zionist Socialist named Beigman was arrested at Samarova, after spending three years in the “Politisolator” (Political Isolation Camp). Jacob Ling was arrested at Samarkand on April 14th, and Moses Hodess and Moses Yehudin were arrested at Tweir.Hodess was exiled to Kazakstan and Yehudin is still under arrest.

Reports from Saratov add that of the Zionist Socialists who were arrested on December 23rd., 1930, Harb is still in confinement, while Sonia Rolnik has been given an additional three years at Kazakstan, and Hineburg an additional three years in Central Asia. Meyer Brotman, a Zionist Socialist, and D. Rosenhaus, a member of the Maccabee, were arrested in December 1930 and accused of membership of the “Rod Cap Gang” of the Zionist Socialist Party. This accusation is unfounded, the report states, since the accused were always under the eye of the G.P.U. They were nevertheless sentenced to five years isolation in Almahata in Kazakstan.

The Heholuz organisation in Russia was suppressed by the Soviet Government in March 1928, since when it is dealt with as an illegal organisation, membership of which is a counter-revolutionary offence. The organisation had been legalised by the Soviet authorities in 1924, and in August of that year held a public conference in Moscow, attended by delegates from all parts of the country. The Jewish Communists conducted an insistent campaign against the Heholuz, however, throughout the entire period, and finally succeeded in bringing about the withdrawal of its legalisation. Even at the time that it enjoyed recognition as a legalised body, its members were frequently arrested and thrown into prison on charges of fostering Zionism, the “spiritual ally of British Imperialism”, and “encouraging the emigree spirit among Jews to induce them to leave the Soviet Union for Palestine”.

“The cruel sufferings, frequent persecutions and arrests which are inflicted on the Zionists in Russia are undoubtedly thinning the active ranks of the Zionist movement”, it is stated in the report of the Zionist Labour Federation Hitachduth with regard to the work in Russia which is being submitted to the Zionist Congress opening next week in Basle. “Many changes have occurred in the ranks of the illegal Reholuz”, the report proceeds.

“The condition of the exiles is becoming worse. The slightest ripple in the political and economic life affects in the first place the exiles. Many members of the Heholuz have already passed through all stages of exile, and there seems as yet no end to their suffering. Some have completed three years in Politisolators and are not yet liberated. New arrests were recently carried out in places of exile, and many who had been hoping soon to resume their normal callings have again been thrown into prisons”.