Isaak Shkolnik a 43-year-old Prisoner of Conscience, has been released after serving a seven-year term on trumped up charges of espionage, it was learned today by the Greater. New York Conference on Soviet Jewry. A semi-skilled laborer, Shkolnik was initially accused of industrial espionage on behalf of British Firms that were building factories, under Soviet contract, in his native town of Vinnitsa. After Western protests, the procurator changed the charges to spying for Israel.
The Conference noted that so little incriminating material was found that the procurator was forced to claim that Shkolnik had a photographic memory and memorized Soviet documents for transmittal to Israel. Commenting on Shkolnik’s release, Margy-Ruth Davis, executive director of the Conference, urged the Soviet Union “to allow Isaak to emigrate as quickly as possible so that he can be reunited with his family in Israel.”
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.
