A letter from six Jews in the Soviet Union who appealed for help to President Nixon to leave that country was broadcast in the Soviet Union by the Voice of America, the JTA learned today from the U.S. information Agency. The broadcast, which consisted of a report on the letter itself and an accompanying statement by Seymour Graubard, National Chairman of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League, was beamed to the Soviet Union in the Russian and Ukrainian languages on October 19th as part of the VOA’s Religious News Service. The letter, signed by six Moscow residents, declares: “In the name of decency, in the name of freedom, in the name of the one in which you and many of us trust, we are asking for help.” The appeal describes the efforts of the group to emigrate from Russia to Israel. Their names were given as Ernest Trachtman. Vadim and Margaret Borshevasky, Alexander Malkin, Boris Uyblenok of Khodos Inessa.
Mr. Graubard’s accompanying statement asked for Mr. Nixon’s public recognition of their plight. Such recognition, he said, “would be of invaluable aid, not only to these six persons, but to thousands of others like them who seek only their legal right as Russian citizens to leave that country and join their loved ones, whether in the State of Israel, the United States or Canada.” Mr. Graubard pointed out that “conditions of Jewish life inside the Soviet Union are strained and dangerous.” He indicated that “over thirty Jews who have applied for emigration to Israel are in Soviet prisons, apparently for no other crime than their lawful requests.” The ADL official stated that “the six Soviet Jews who signed their names in this appeal did so courageously with the fervent hope that Mr. Nixon would respond.” The letter to President Nixon was reportedly given to a New York school teacher vacationing in the Soviet Union by one of the signers, Ernest Trachtman. He had expressed hope that she could “somehow manage” to direct the letter to the President.
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.
