Physicist Says End Persecution of Jews Wishing to Emigrate

Valery N. Chalidze, a distinguished Soviet physicist and founder of the dissident Soviet Committee on Human Rights, has called on the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet to pardon all Jews imprisoned for wanting to go to Israel and “an end to all persecution of Jews seeking repatriation.” The appeal was contained in a letter addressed to the President of the Supreme Soviet, dated May 20, 1971 and published in translation in the Sept. 18 edition of Saturday Review. Also published was an endorsement of Chalidze’s letter by two colleagues and co-founders of the Committee on Human Rights, A. Sakharov and A. Tverdokhlebov. All are non-Jews.

Chalidze’s letter contained a staunch defense of Zionism which, the writer noted, was portrayed by the Soviet press “as a reactionary (practically fascist) political trend.” Yet, the letter went on, “Zionism is no more than the idea of Jewish statehood, and one can only admire the persistence of an ancient and persecuted people, who in very difficult conditions have resurrected a long vanished state. It is precisely such rebirth and elimination of the tragic consequences of dispersion for the Jewish people that constitutes the goal of Zionism. Zionism is portrayed in the press as an anti-Communist and anti-Soviet trend, yet the concerns of Zionism are entirely national.” Chalidze wrote.