Published reports that the Soviet government has scaled down its education tax on emigrants to capitalist countries remain unconfirmed by Jewish activists in Moscow, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was informed today. The reports said the taxes were reduced to take into account the number of years an educated would-be emigrant had been employed.
However, Mort Yadin, an executive board member of the Washington Committee for Soviet Jewry and a recent Soviet emigrant himself, said that a telephone conversation last night with Viktor Yakhout, a 28-year-old physicist in Moscow, indicated that the reports are unknown to prominent Jews there, including Prof. Evgeny Levich, the noted scientist and son of Prof. Benjamin Levich. Yakhout said he sees Evgeny Levich almost daily, Yadin reported.
Yakhout also said, according to Yadin, that some Moscow Jews who had applied for permits to emigrate were originally told to call for their documents between Nov. 13 and Nov. 17 but are now being told the visa offices is so busy they should report after Nov. 25. The office has not explained the cause of the delay, Yakhout said. He added that he does not know how many applicants have visas pending, Yadin said.
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.
