The secret Soviet trials and imprisonment of Jewish religious leaders in Leningrad and Moscow are “an expression of the Soviet Union’s outspoken, anti-Israeli policy,” Senator Jacob K. Javits, of New York, declared here this weekend upon return from a 10-day visit to the USSR.
“Through these persecutions of the Jewish leaders,” the Senator said, “Russia is giving notice that she will not tolerate the emigration of Russian Jewry to Israel or any advocacy of such a move.” Mr. Javits, who went to Russia primarily to investigate the status of Soviet trade with the United States, said he visited and worshiped at the Great Synagogue in Moscow, and found the Sabbath service there proceeding as usual.
However, he emphasized, not one of the Russian religious Jews he met would discuss the reports about the renewed persecutions launched against Jews recently by the Russian authorities. The Senator said he could not reach a single, authoritative, Russian Government official with whom he could discuss the situation of the Jews in the USSR.
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.
