OLIDARtTY WITH SOVIET JEWS
JWI Staff
Vancouver's- Jewish community wili be singing and dancing in solidarity with Russian Jews tomorrow night, Sept. 30, at the same time that Soviet Jews bravely sing and dance in synagogue and on the street for Sinichat Torah.
The tiny remnant of Soviet synagogues, chiefly the Great Synagogue in Moscow, will come â– alive- with processions (Hakafot) -of the Torah spilling over oiito. the streets outside. Seven thoujsand Jammed the Moscow syhagogue
vicinity last, year for the holiday that marks the continuity of Judaism. The Torah reading is completed for the year and the first book of the Torah isi'started again, ^^aU on the same night. In I yancouver, Beth Israel and Schara Tzedeck synagogues will hold their final Hakafa outside in solidarity with the oppression of Russian Jews. At Reform Temple Sholom, Simchat Torah celebrations will be hield tonight, Friday, Sept. 29, 7:30 p.m.
Vahcouyerfs Soviet Jewry Action Committee has asked local.
congregations to carry but the following actions Sept. 30 on Simchat Torah:
1) A isilent Hakafah in solidarity with Soviet Jews.
2) Raise the issue of the plight of Soviet Jews from the pulpit.
3) Distribute fact flyers to those attending Simchat Torah services on the recently-imposed 'head-tax' required for- educated Soviet Jews wishing to emigrate. Flyers wilU request people to write the Soviet Ambassador in Ottawaieon-demning this policy and urging its revision.
At Beth Israel, the Conservative
congriBgation,: a special prayer, readings and silent Hakafah outside the building, will mark a stand of solidarity with Soviet Jews. As they come to services children will be given flags imprinted with "Save Soviet Jewry — Am Yisroel Chai". Sheets of songs popularized by Soviet Jews will also be distributed for singing during Hakafot and services, ledby U.S.Y.
The Orthodox Synagoguie, Schara Tzedeck, will feature special songs, "Kachol V'Lavoh," "Am Yisroel Vhai", "Ani Ma'amin". NCSY groups, together with all
children in' the congregation, will lead the program. Highlight planned on" the street will be re-enactment of the events of Simchat Torab in Moscow in,1969, when police brutality tried to stifle the celebration of Moscow's Jewish community.
This is the one time a year when Russian Jews come out en masse to synagogue. Eye-witnesses to the event have reported that thousands in the annual crowds are young people who have no memory of any Jewishness or Jewish observances but are drawn, especially since 1967, to seek out their fellow Jews and the ancient faith most of their parents abandoned.
SHABBAT SHALOM, FRffiAY, SEPT. 29, 1972—TISHRI 21, 5733
Vol. XXXIX, No. 36^^$10.0aper year, this issue 23c
OirlirirTO
JPL COUNTER TERROR HALTED
irBRUjSALEM—The Jewish Defense League said that it plaimed to attack Arab dip. lomats jEOid missions in Europe and the United States but was prevented from doing so by the intervention of Israeli security forces. The disclosure was mao^ by JDL secretary Yosef Schneider at a press conference here' after a JDLijnember, Abraham Hershkovitz, wa$ arrested last week ,for attempting to sniuglEle:'arms joid ammunition out of the country.
Waldheim gets appeal from 1200 Soviet Jews
UNITED NATIONS - .Yosef Tekoah, Israel's Ambassador to^ the -UN, met with Secretary General Kurt Waldheim and transmitted to him an appeal signed by more than 500 Soviet Jews calling for United Nations action against the repressive 'measure of an extortionist ransom tax imposed on all Jews.with academic education who' desire to unite with^ their famiUes/».ancl .their >^ ^peoplein Israel. - ^ ,.
The appeal, was adressed to
'11»,^:»«*(i-rtf 'Mr*T¥ «
Waldheim and to Heads of Delegations to the 27th session of the General Assembly. It was signed by Jews from various parts of,the Soviet Union.
Tekoah also transmitted to the Secretary General 36 letters on behalf of approximately 700 Soviet Jews who are pleading for assistance in their^ efforts to exercise their fundamental human right to join their families'in-Israel.
He also - drew Waldheim's
SIA4CHAT TORAH, one of the Jewish icalendoi^s hdppiejM^ doyt, will mork the iMoicommiinity'stolhlarity with brethren in Russia. See stoiy top of this poge
attention to ihe intensification of harassment and oppression of Soviet Jews by the Soviet authorities and in particular to the arrest last week of 30 Moscow Jews.
The^ Supreme Soviet, meanwhile,* ratified the Aug. 3 decree establishing high visa fees for college-educated Jews seeking to emigrate from the Soviet Union, the Natioilal Conference for Soviet Jewry tias reported.,
The NCSJ had also reported that 30 Moscow Jews, among them leading activists, are being held by Soviet authorities following demonstrations outside the Supreme Soviet over the-^ visa fee issue.
Jewish sources in the Soviet Union expressed fear today that the 30 may be held in custody until after Simchat Torah (Oct. 1) in order to discourage Jewish demonstrations during the holiday.
The National Conference on Soviet Jewry also, learned that three leading Moscow Jewish activists; Vladimir Slepak, Victor Polsky and Roman Rutman, were taken on Yom Kippur to Letfortovo Prison for interrogation. Letfortovo Prison is the same prison in which Ilya Glezer was held for six months prior to his trial Aug, ~22, Jewish sources in Mos-cow fear that the detention of the three men could signal the beginning of an attempt on the part of Soviet authorities to link these activists in. a "conspiracy" trial.
In an earlier incident, Soviet authorities suddenly closed Ark-hipova stre^^t, where Moscow's Choral Synagogue is located, at S a.m. on Yom Kippur. Hundreds of Moscow Jews, who normally attend synagogue on Yom Kippur just for Yizkor service were unable to do so.
The closing of the street on Yom Kippur came a week after groups of Jews were dispersed by militia when they attempted to approach the synagogue on RoshHashona. In Cincinnati, Judy Silver
(Continued on Page 10) See SOVIET JEWS
jHiswm
Interview in Vancouver with exiled Soviet Jewish poet• See Page 11
' JERUSALEII ^ Seventy percent of Soviet Jewish college graduates who want to emigrate to Israel will be prevented from doing so because of exorbitant visa feels demanded from Jews who received a highei; education, in the USSR, .three Jewish families arriving here from Soviet Union statedi
Refuses presichncy^^^
JERUSALEM ~ Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's Ambassador to U.S., has turned down post of president of Haifa Technion according to reliable reports, after)iavingbeen promised a Cabinet post by Premier Golda Meir following elections next year.
PhittpiNiies dd
: JERUSAI^EM — In wake of recent-floods that devastated large areas of the Philippines j Magen David Adorn — Israel's Red Cross service — was among the first to send urgently needed Help to Philippine Red Cross for disaster victims.
WOULD WELCOME rnXS WITH E6YPTUHS
WASHINGTON—The Uni. ted States would welcome diplomatic talks with Egyptians when a high-level Egyptian delegation arrives here shortly for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings. State Department spokesman John IQng said. The delegation headed by Deputy Premieik Mohammed Abdulla Marzaban, has not approached the' U.S> on the matter of talks.
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TEL AVIV — Foreigners are introducing Israeli youngsters to drugs, the chief pharmacist of Tel Aviv Health office charged recentiy.
Abraham Tornau, addressing the closing session of the sec<md Congress of the World Alliance^ for Israeli Pharmacy, blamed the influx of volunteers and tourists from abroad for the rising incidence of drug abuse among minors.
He said the >[oungest record^ user was a nine-year-old boy who was persuaded to smoke Hashish, a form of marijuana by a 13-year^old friend.
Tornau said that 182 minors were among the 892 persons arrested for using hashish in 1971.
He said 40 percent of the users arrested were foreign tourists including 178 Americans.
Tornau said that 40,000 Israelis are thought to be habitual users of hashish, opium, LSD and other drugs, though heroin, a powerful opium derivative, is not widely used in this country.