Soviet authorities are pressing two Vilna activists to testify against Naum Salensky, leader of the city’s Jewish activists who may soon be brought to trial on serious criminal charges, the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry reported today.
The Lithuanian KGB accused Vladimir Drot and Vladimir Raiz, of “anti-social and anti-Soviet activities” in connection with their Jewish cultural activities and their agitation to emigrate Drot, an acoustical engineer, was accused by a KGB agent of “unlawful management of an Ulpan for Jewish history and literature” Raiz, a research biologist, was accused of “illegal management scientific seminars”. The KGB threatened the two activists with imprisonment if they refuse to testify against Salensky.
Soviet Jews have organized a series of seminars in several cities to teach themselves about Jewish life and to keep them abreast of developments in their professional fields, the Conference said. Salensky, a 45-year-old physicist with a wife and child, has been leading Vilna’s key Jewish seminar in his home for several months. He is being investigated on charges of “defaming the internal policies of the USSR,” which could mean three years imprisonment.
In a related development, the two activists’ pregnant wives asked for permission to emigrate even if they have to leave without their husbands. Carmela Raiz and Raiza Drot made their appeals to the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party and the Lithuanian Red Cross, according to information received by the Conference. Bronx Borough President Robert Abrams. Conference chairman, announced that some 200,000 New Yorkers are expected to march from City Hall to Battery Park on May 1 beginning 12 noon in a massive solidarity demonstration for Soviet Jewry.
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.
