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The Soviets were sufficiently disturbed by such profound allegiance to a foreign power that several hundred Jews who openly avowed their loyalty to Israel were arrested in a police dragnet last Juneimmediately after the would-be skyjackers were picked up at Leningrad's Smolny airport. If other Soviet citizens had similarly supported another country, very probably the same would have happened. An unknown number were released after months in prison. But five are scheduled to be tried soon in Riga, another nine in Kishinev, and one in Odessa. The trials, however, are apparently not having the effect that the Kremlin intended. After the sentences were announced last week, a dozen or so Jews in Leningrad and several other cities marched around the main streets in protest.
