I:
Negative reports alter aliyah intentions of Soviet Jews
DR. VICTOR POLSKI
TEL AVIV — Victor Polski, a Soviet-Jewish activist who recently arrived in Israel, told newsmen at a press interview that "the general tendency of Soviet Jews contemplating emigration to Israel is to wait and see what will happen with Israel, and along what lines the State will develop."
According to Polski, the Jews of the Soviet Union are receiving a picture of conditions in Israel based upon reports in the Soviet press and on information in letters from friends and relatives in Israel.
The overall view is negative, much more so than was the case two or three years ago, he said.
The general impression of Soviet Jews about Israel is that the atmosphere is a negative one; instead of unity there is fragmentation which becomes increasingly more pronounced.
The economic situation is fraught with much danger because of the pressures of inflation and the high cost of living. Neither is there a very friendly attitude towards Soviet immigrants on the part of the settled population.
Polski went on to say that while this may not accurately reflect the truth about Israel, it is what the Jews in Russia believe to be the case; and that is suf-(Continued on page 4) • see POLSKI
USSR iamming Israel radio
VIENNA — The negative opinion about Israel which is growing amongst Jews in the Soviet Union is in large measure the result of the latest action taken by Moscow in jamming the broadcasts of Israeli radio, according to reports received from Soviet emigrants enroute to Israel. Until 1973 Soviet Jews received most of their information about Israel from radio broadcasts to which they were able to tune in without difficulty.
Now the Soviets have janmied those transmissions and Radio Israel can now be heard only with difficulty, and only in the southernmost portions of the USSR. The Soviet press also stresses the negative side of Israel and is pursuing this technique on a much more intensive scale than in Jthe past.
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ISRAEL BRIEFS
SHABBAT SHALOM—THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 19..^NISAN 29, 5735
Vol. XLII, No. 15 ^^$15.00 per year, this issue 30c
USSR MIG-23S to Egypt
LONDON — Egyptian President Anwar Sadat has confirmed United States intelligence reports that the Soviet Union has supplied Egypt with the ultra-modern MiG-23 fighter. His remarks came in an interview published in the Beirut weekly. Al Hawadess. JCNS
Urge public to protest new Soviet repressions
NEW YORK — In response to a series of acts against Soviet Jews, capped by the police in-
CONSUL YOSEF YAAKOV TO ADDJtESiXOMMUNlTY AT IMDEPENDENCE DAY FETE
CONSUL YOSEF YAAKOV
Yosef Yaakov, Consul at the Embassy of Israel in Ottawa since mid-1971, will address the community during the 27th Israel Independence Day celebrations, slated for Sunday, April 20, 8 p.m., at Queen Elizabeth theatre.
The evening will additionally feature a performance by young Israeli piano virtuoso, Boaz Sharon. Chairing the event, is Cantor Murray Nixon, Canadian Zionist Federation regional vice-president.
The program is sponsored by CZF, Pacific region. The reasonably-priced tickets may be purchased in advance from Schara Tzedeck, Beth Israel, the Jewish Community Centre, or the CZF office at the Centre.
Yosef Yaakov was born in Shanghai, China, where he attended a British school. He commenced law studies which were interrupted by the Japanese
occupation.
During the Chinese civil war, he served as a correspondent for American news agencies, and as a news editor at the American radio station.
Mr. Yaakov immigrated to Israel during the War of Independence and following several years with Israel Defence Forces, entered government service, being attached to the Prime Minister's office in the fields of information and broadcasting.
He was transferred to Ministry for Foreign Affairs.in 1962, and has served as Consul for information at New York, aS; a member of Israel's delegation to the United Nations, and as senior assistant in information division at the Ministry in Jerusalem.
Mr. Yaakov is married and has one daughter.
vasion of the Moscow Synagogue at Passover, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry has announced expansion of events for Solidarity Day for Soviet Jews to be held April 13 in cities across the United States.
Stanley H. Lowell, NCSJ chairman, in a statement declared: "For several months we have awaited a sign from the Soviet Union of a significant positive change in regard to the treatment of its Jewish citizens. Instead, Soviet authorities have apparently rejected this course of action. The Jewish community has no recourse but to consider the time of waiting to be at an end."
Lowell called for a public protest against the Soviet police's removal of worshipers from the. Moscow Synagogue, the eight-year sentence of Dr. Mikhail Stern, the five-year exile sentences of Mark Nashpitz and Boris Tsit-lionok, and "the arrests of dozens of Jews on spurious charges."
Lowell declared that: "we will escalate all moral, political and economic sanctions at our disposal" to bring about the termination of 'Hhe intensified persecution of Soviet Jews."
Dr. Mikhail Stern, the Vinnitsa doctor sentenced to eight years in prison on bribery charges, lost his appeal in the Ukranian Supreme Court in Kiev.
Dr. Stern!s son, August, who is in the United States under NCSJ auspices to seek help for his father, said "My father is innocent. He is being punished because of 'my brother's and my desire to emigrate to Israel. The Soviet government is trying to make an example of my father because he is a much beloved and respected physician. I appeal to all
Americans to ask Soviet authorities to return my father to me."
Mark Nashpitz, a 27-year-old dentist, and Boris Tsitlionok, a 31-year-old plumber were sentenced to five years in exile by a Moscow district court. The sentence was imposed a few hours after the beginning of the trial which was closed to other Moscow Jewish activists and foreign correspondents.
Under Soviet law exile means the two men cannot live in their (Continued on page 10) see REPRESSIONS
WITHDRAW ARTILLERY
TEL AVIV — Following Israel complaint to United Nations Emergency Force headquarters, Egypt withdrew most of 60 artillery pieces it had installed in its limited forces zone in Sinai in violation of disengagement agreement.
SPAIN REFUSES VISAS
TEL AVIV—Spanish government refused entry visas to Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra to give a concert in Madrid.
QUITS LAIOR PARTY
TEL AVIV —Labor party former secretary general Aryah Eliavhas quit party because of differences over policy and leadership quality. He will retain his Knesset seat as a one-man independent faction.
FILES DESTROYED
TEL AVIV—A fire that gutted Sheba Medical Centre near here destroyed medical files of some 50,000 Israeli war invalids and caused damage estimated at over IL 1.5 million.
Rule Toronto Star didn't defame Arabs
TORONTO — The Ontario Press Council has rejected a complaint that cartoons in the Toronto Star denigrated and defamed Canadians of Arab extraction.
The complaint was against two cartoons by Duncan Macpherson published last November, and was made by James Peters of Toronto. He was acting on behalf of the Canadian Arab Federation, the Canadian Arab Friendship Society and the Arab-Canadian community in Toronto.
"The function of a cartoonist is to present an opinion in pictorial, artd often provocative
U.S. PROMISES ACTION AGAINST RESIDENT NAZIS
WASHINGTON - Head of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service pledged that he would increase the number of department of justice investigators seeking 33 Nazis still living in America.
JEWS REJECT AUSTRIAN COMPENSATION OFFER
VIENNA — The Austrian Jewish community has categorically rejected as totally inadequate a compensation offer to victims of Nazism made by the Austrian Government The offer amounted to 15,000 Austrian schillings per person. Moreover, the conditions for obtaining this pitifully small sum made acceptance of the'offer inipossible. Each victim v/ould have to prove that his or her present position and state of health are due to Nazi persecution 30 years ago. An Austrian Jewish leader, Karl Lazar, remarked: "The Jews want compensation not charity."
Austria has been sharply criticized for years because she has refused up to now to accept responsibility for restitution to former citizens who suffered under the Nazis. The Austrian argument is that Nazi Germany annexed the country in 1938 and it did not regain independence until 1945. JCNS
form," the council said.
"The cartoons in question would be offensive to some Canadian readers. However, each expresses a point of view which is legitimate for publication. Therefore, the complaint is not upheld."
The first cartoon, published last Nov. 1, showed a giant figure in Arab dress holding a drawn scimitar. A tiny figure labelled "Western Economy" was perched on the blade in a pleading attitude.
The second cartoon, which appeared four days later, showed a group of armed men in Arab dress and a caption reading: "U.S. Ambassador, Munich Olympics, Ma'alot. . . and now the United Nations!"
The Press Council is a voluntary body on which eight Ontario daily newspapers, with more than half the province's daily circulation, are represented. JCNS
DUTCH HINT TO SAUDI ARABIA
AMSTERDAM - The Dutch Government would regret a negative reaction by the Saudi Arabian Government to Holland's pos^onement of a planned visit to Riadh by Dutch Foreign Minister Max van der Stoel.
Dutch Premier Joop den Uyl announced in the Dutch Parliament that Van der Steel's visit would be postponed indefinitely because Saudi Arabia had refused to grant a visa to a Dutch Jewish journalist among the press party due to accompany him.
den Uyl said at a press conference at The Hague that his Government's decision to postpone the visit had been taken on humanitarian grounds.
J