The Israel youth delegation to the Moscow Youth Festival returned to Israel today with its pro-Communist and non-Communist elements prevented only by a police cordon from coming to blows on the Haifa docks.
Friction between the two delegations, which prevailed throughout the return trio was close to a stage of violence when the ship docked. A quickly organized police barrier kept the non-Communist youth from a fight over charges by the non-Communist youth that the pro-Communist youth had slandered Israel at the Moscow Festival.
Both groups agreed that Russian Jewry was the victim of discrimination and that a great desire existed among Russian Jews to emigrate to Israel.
The young people said most of the Russian Jews they met were acquainted with Israel via listening to Kol Israel and Kol Zion Lagolah, whose foreign language broadcasts were only partially jammed by the Soviets.
The non-Communist youth said that Jews from remote regions of Russia made special trips to Moscow to meet the Israel visitors.
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.
