Lazar Lubarsky, a Jewish activist of Rostov imprisoned since July on charges of “defamation of the Soviet Union,” was told this week that he would also be charged with “imparting State secrets to unauthorized persons,” according to Soviet Jewish sources. Conviction on the new charge would bring a maximum sentence of five years in a strict-regime labor camp. Lubarsky has also been denied visits by his family and must retain a new lawyer because of the seriousness of the new charge, the sources said, adding that his trial will be secret.
The sources also said that Viktor Lapidus a Moscow engineer who was among the original 19 Jews whose emigration tax was waived in Oct. her now been told to report to the Appeals Committee Dec. 18. Lapidus has already left his job, renounced his Soviet citizenship and deposited in a bank the required 500-ruble ($625) renunciation charge.
In Kiev, the sources said, 10 Jewish families have received exit visas and been billed the education tax. Vladimir Kochubiyevsky and Alexander Mamurski were billed 14,000 rubles ($17,500) worth.
(In New York, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry reported today that in Leningrad, Dr. Leonid Tarassuk, recently fired as curator of The Hermitage after applying for emigration, has received a visa to Israel. In Kiev, teenage Jewish activities–many of them a year or so past call-up age–are being summoned to military service.
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.
