Three hundred Soviet police descended on about 200 Jews making a pilgrimage Sunday to the graves of Jewish martyrs at Rumbuli outside Riga, arrested many of them and dispersed the rest, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry reported today. Those arrested received 15-day sentences, according to Jewish sources in the Soviet Union, the NCSJ reported. Rumbuli is the site of a massacre of Jews by the Nazis during World War II. It has been the practice of Riga Jews to lay wreaths at a monument on the site. Those arrested were reportedly released later, the NCSJ reported.
Jewish sources in the Soviet Union reported today that Soviet authorities have lately tightened their restrictions on Jews in the Riga area. They reported that Valery Kaminsky was arrested recently and given a 15-day administrative sentence on charges of “hooliganism.” Another Riga Jew, Valery Buyko, was questioned by the KGB (secret police) for six hours while his home was searched
The NCSJ also reported that five Leningrad Jews have appealed to the Mayor of that city and to the head of the Internal Affairs Department in Leningrad for permission to assemble on Dec. 16 in front of the municipal building to protest the denial of exit visas. The five are Iosif Blikh; Raul Braz; Arkady Rabinov; Grigory Goman; and Boris Rubinshtein.
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.
