Seventeen Moscow Jews were arrested today and later released with a warning that if they continued to demonstrate they would be “sent away,” the National Conference for Soviet Jewry reported. Six of the arrested Jews were seized outside the Kremlin walls after they began a hunger strike to protest the failure of Soviet authorities to grant them exit visas.
The other 11, all activists, were picked up at various points in the city. There was no indication where they would be sent to if they disobeyed the orders not to demonstrate, the NCSJ said.
The six were identified as Valery Krizhak and his wife; Dr. Alexander Luntz, a mathematician; Dr. Vladimir Raginsky, a physicist; Dr. Viktor Brailovsky, a cyberneticist and Eda Nudel whose occupation was not known.
CHARGE THEY ARE INDENTURED SERVANTS
Euntz, Raginsky and Brailovsky were among seven Jewish scientists who signed a statement issued just before the hunger strike began which accused Soviet authorities of holding them as “indentured” servants of the State without allowing them to “be redeemed.” They said that when they applied for visas, they were told by the Soviet Ministry of Interior that they could not leave because they were too highly qualified and because their skills were needed by the State.
This has replaced access to State secrets as the reason by denying visas to Jewish scientists and other professionals seeking to emigrate, they said.
The NCSJ spokesman said today’s hunger strike was prompted by disappointment and frustration over the fact that Soviet Communist Party Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev has made no move to ease visa restrictions or free Jewish prisoners on the eve of his visit to the U.S. It had been widely expected in Jewish circles that the Soviet leadership would make some sort of conciliatory gesture before Brezhnev’s American trip.
The NCSJ also reported that two Kharkov Jews were detained by police all day today. One of them was identified as Moisey Kerbel, who was arrested at Kiev airport after he had gone there from Kharkov with a police escort. He and another Jew were told they could not leave the city, the NCSJ 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.
