Dear Jack: I am writing to you and to a few other select individuals from among leaders in the American Jewish community and in industry and scholarship. It is my hope that you will contribute your prestige and influence to a proposal to solve a grievous problem in the State of Israel. During my recent stay in Israel there took place the unfortunate Ashkelon car-race affair. This was only the latest of the many incidents that have plagued the State in the area of Sabbath observance. It is hard to convey the sense of animosity, of contempt, and of social disruption caused by this and similar conflicts. Under the present six-day-a-week situation, non-observant Jews have only Saturdays available for travel, entertainment, artistic events, sports, etc. To be denied the right to pursue their interests on this one free day of the week is something they understandably consider intolerable. Yet to permit the open and public desecration of the Sabbath is to invite the de-Judaization of the Land of Israel. Furthermore, observant Jews find the situation even more onerous, because their religious convictions prevent them from participating in public events even in a limited measure. It has occurred to a number of people that the only equitable solution is the five-day week. Eventually this system will have to come to Israel. But economists maintain that this cannot be instituted in the foreseeable future. J It therefore occurred to me that a way out of this problem is the restoration of Rosh Hodesh (the first day of each Hebrew month) as an official day of rest in Israel. This will add from seven to nine days (instead of approximately fifty as in the^ five-day week) to the current number of official days-off. During this time there can be scheduled many of the "events" now scheduled for Saturdays, for want of any other time. Religious and secular Jews will both benefit, the escalation or tempers and tensions will be avoided, and an ancient Jewish tradition reestablished -— at …

Dear Jack: The following are the facts in the case of the Russian Jewish family whom I am trying to help emigrate to Israel. Dr. Benjamin Josephovitz Shapira, of 21-A/37 Frunze Street, Belgorod Oblastnoi, 308614, USSR, is a 40-year old chemical engineer. His wife, Margareta, is 37 years old and is a teacher. They have a 12 year-old daughter. Dr. Shapira is the only son of a Rabbi and Mrs. S. Joseph Shapira who emigrated from Czernowitz-Bucovina to Israel in 1967, after having spent 27 years in Siberian exile. They reside at 14/5 Almagor Street, Neveh Sharet, Tel Aviv.Dr. Shapira has applied six times for permission to emigrate and be reunited with his parents. The last such application was on February 5, 1973. All have been turned down, and no serious reason offered for it. The result of his requests has been that since July 1972 he lost his job as a lecturer in chemistry in the university of Belgorod, and has remained unemployed save for some temporary unimportant work. (He had previously been employed in vitamin production.)As stated his sixth application was made on February 5, 1973. All six were presented to the local authority, Col. Alexander Ivanovitz Epichin in Belgorod Oblastnoi, and not to Moscow.On March 15, 1973, he went to the Home Ministry, Central Ovir, and they promised to look into the matter. They asked Col. Epichin for his answer, but he has not replied other than a vague assertion that the local organization has to meet on the problem. On April 26, Col Epichin gave a negative response. On April 25, all 3 members of the family travelled to Moscow, but could not get in to see the Assistant Minister of Interior.In the beginning of May Dr. Shapira learned that Epichin's reply in April was fraudulent, for he had never cleared it in Moscow. Dr. Shapira and his family have been included on the lists presented to the Russians by Dr. Kissinger, Mr. Rogers and Mayor Lindsay, all to no avail.Most recently they have forbidden Dr. Shapira and family to travel…