NEW YORK—Dr. Mikhail Stern, who was arrested in May^ 1974 and sentenced in December, 1974 to eight years in a labor camp on charges of "bribery and swindling," wa s released recently by the Ukrainian Supreme Court, on "humanitarian grounds," it was reported by the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ) and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ).
The court stated that it had taken into consideration the 58-year-old endocrinologist's ill health, age and the fact that he was a "first offender."
The SSSJ and UCSJ said Stem was suffering in the labor camp from tuberculosis, ulcers, bladder stones and spinal and heart disorders.
Recently he was placed in a punishment cell for 10 days for
writing a letter which was never delivered to his wife, Ida, describing the horrors of the camp conditions, the two groups reported.
"Dr. Stern was a scapegoat in the classic sense," the SSSJ and UCSJ said. "He was tried because his sons had applied for exit visas to go to Israel. It was a clear warning to all Jews in the Ukraine who might seek exit."
Furthermore, they said, his conviction followed a two-week "kangaroo court" trial in Vinnitsa in which the sentence was already common knowledge before the proceedings ended and at which most every prosecution witaess recanted his testimony on the stand.
(Continued on Page 21) See: STERN
DR. MIKHAIL STERN. Right: Four Soviet Jews «rho have escaped to freedom. Mrs. InessaRubin, Professor Vitaly Rubin, Mrs. Bertha Rasfeliovskaya and Professor Alexander Lunts at a press conference in Jerusalem.
SHABBAT SHALOM—THURSDAY, MARCH 31. I977r-N1SAN 12, 5737
VOL. XLIV No. 13
$18.00 per year, this issue 30c
mm
JERUSALEM—A devaluation of 1.8 percent brought exchange rate for U.S. dollar to 9.81 Israel pounds, and travellers will now have to pay 10.70 pounds per dollar. •
• bailor V't
NATALIE SHC5IARANSKY, whose husband Anatoly ivas arrested by the KGB in Moscow recently following long attempts to emigrate. She is seen arriving at London's Heathrow airport in her campaign to have him released and allowed to join her in Israel.
(Jerusalem Post)
JERUSALEM — The hew wave of Soviet repression against Jews is the worst in 25 years. Foreign Minister Yigal Alton said in the Knesset.
He addressed the house with an oMcial Government statement on the worsening situation of the Jewish community in the Soviet Union. Factions which had intend-' ed to present motitHis for - the agenda on the; subject withdrew them in favor of the Government statement.
AUon declared: "Shocking reports are now beginning to reach us, much' more shocking than in the past, of anti-Jewish and anti-
Zionist harassment in the Soviet Union. ■':' -'^v ■
"Conditions have deteriorated in recent weeks. On March 4, the official Soviet organ "Izvestia" published a so-called confession of a police informer by the name of Sania Lipavski, in which JeTsvish "ali^ah activists are said >to have been, working in the service of the AmOrican Central Intelligence Agency."
Allon said Lipavski had- thus criminally implicated such prominent persons as Prof^^^ Alexander Lemer, Anatoly ^c-haransky and Vladimir Slepak.
lAilli yi6ES US.
JERUSALEM—Premier Yitzhak Rabin said that a high-powered information campaign woul.d have to be mounted to explain Israers stand on defensible borders and oh the Palestine issue to the majority of the American people and its representatives.
JERUSALEM -^The Palestine National Council ended its 13th sessicm in Cairo with an endorsement of the Palestine Liberation Organization's 1968 covenant, wliich calls for the eventual <Us-mantling of the State of Israel and the creation of a Palestinian state.
The council also expressed support for the PLO's quest to participate in Middle Elast conferences, but not under United Nations Security Council Resol-
JERUSALEM—The Jewish Agency denied a news rejport that substantial numbers of Moroccan Jews left Israel last year to return to Morocco. .Yehuda Dominitz, deputy director of tiie Agency's; immigratioh arid absorption department, claimed that not a single Jew emigrated from Israel to Morocco last year. Dominitz recalled similar reports lastyear of a large-scale departure of Moroccan Jews. He said that an investigatioa showled that only eight families left, two of which subsequently returned to Israel.
The Associated Press story was based on an interview with a person identified as Moris Simon who said he immigrated to Israiel in 1972 but left three years later. He claimed that hundreds of other Moroccan Jews had also returned to their country of origin. But according to the Jewish Agency, there is no record of a Moris Simon having unmigrated to Israel from Morocco at any time since 1970.
ution 242, which governs the Israel-Arab talks in Geneva.
The 293-man parliament-in-exile affirmed during its ten-day session the right of the PLO to participate on an independent and equal footing in all inter-liational conferences or forums concerned with the Palestine question in accordance with U.N. General Assembly resolutions, rathc»r than Security Council de-cisions.
The council made special reference to General Assembly Resolution 3,236, which ackhowl^es the Palestinisui case as a national issue and riot a refugee matter.
The coimcil fUiiher affirmed that the struggle within the ''occupied land'* would be escalated on mifitaiy, political and public-opinion levels "until defeating and eHriiinating the occupatibri.^-The cmuicil was dominated by the PLO's nulitauit^ leadership.
Delegates who repoi^e^ plan4 ned to explore the prospects ^ changing the charter - in the words of PLO spokesmen - "dared not False" the notion.
No inatter^^^^^l^ gb in scrutiriizing the final eom-munique issed by the Palestine National Council, the fact remains that the PLO steered the siq^sed represeritaiives of the different IkcticHis of the Paiesdslsn pa;q[»le into adheringtpabard-linelliddle East stance which essentialy East stance which essentially dailies Israel's right to exist as a sovereign Jewifsh state.
The "Izvestia" report, Allon continued, was an especially serious blow to the Jews in the USSR, since the newspaper has a wide circulation and its contents influence its readers.
A week after the "Izvestia** report appeared, Moscow Television showed a film entitied "Traders in Souls/' in which Israel arid the Jewish pec^le are attacked, and aliyah activists portrayed as mercenaries, Allon said.
He added that after 60 years* ruloi the Soviets should realize that the Jewish spirit within its borders cannot be extinguished. Zionism was a solution to the USSR's Jewish problem, and the time has come for the Soviet rulers to grant Jews the full right to live according to the dictates of their religion and culture.
Allon declared: "AH we demand of the Soviet authorities are human rights, and national rights for our brethren in that counti^. We shall persevere in our efforts to obtain for them these elementary freedoms. We shall not torn our backs upon a whole tribe of Israel. facing persecution and extinc-
JERUSALEM—Cabinet unanimously approved extension of Chief of Staff Mordechai Gur's appointment for anottier year.
ACRE—Druse notables asked for permission to cross intoLeb-. anonvto express condolences to tiiO' &mily of terdered leftist Druse leader KamalJunblatt.
in ipminii
JERUSALEM — More than 100 Jews are now definitely known td have died in the Rumanian earthqu^e. This was stated by the Rumanian Chief Rabbi, Dr. Moses Rosen, when he arrived in Israel for a brief visit."The toll amomg members of the community as a result of the disaster continues to rise,'* he said. Dr. Rosen was in Israel to promote information about the aid Rumanian Jewry still needs. JCNS
POLICE WATCH ss demonstrators from Betar^ Concerned Jewish Youth and Stodent Straggle for Soviet Jewiy sit the office of ABBtoEg, Bossla's trade agency stacking op 100 ponnds of ms^ to protest the Kremlin's ban on its fanportatlon from sbioad. Coi^plete sets of instrdctlons hi Russian and English for ba&faBg matzo were sent to Russian Jews. SSSJphoto