Soviet authorities in the Ovir (visa) department in the Ukraine asked Yacov Gluzman, who has been separated from his wife, Rita, for two years, to pay on Friday 900 rubles ($900) for an exit visa and to return tomorrow morning for a final decision on permission for him to emigrate to Israel to rejoin his family, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was informed. The disclosure was made by Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee.
In his regular commentary today on radio station WINS, Rabbi Tanenbaum also discussed the case in general and note that the procedures for Gluzman’s emigration “can be reported now for the first time publicly.” Experts here said that when the exit procedure reaches the stage that it has with the young Russian Jew, completion normally takes place. Rabbi Tanenbaum said that Gluzman’s payment of the $900 involves termination of his Soviet citizenship.
Mrs. Gluzman was permitted to emigrate two years ago with assurances her husband would be allowed to follow shortly. She has been in the United States for a month seeking help to induce Soviet officials to permit her husband to emigrate.
US CALLING FOR EMIGRATION
Rabbi Tanenbaum also reported that despite the furor in the press over aspects of testimony by Richard Davies, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, before a House subcommittee. Davies formally informed the subcommittee that for the first time during the past half century the US government is supporting a draft resolution before Congress that calls on the Soviet government to allow Jews seeking to emigrate to do so.
Asked about this, Rabbi Tanenbaum said he had the full text of the State Department’s draft resolution and that Davies had introduced it in the subcommittee record but had not read it and apparently newsmen had overlooked it. Rabbi Tanenbaum told his radio audience that the text was made available so that members of the Jewish community would understand “the degree to which our government is explicitly committed to support and advocate the cause of human rights of Soviet Jewry and other deprived minorities.”
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.
