A resolution demanding that the Soviet Union restore cultural rights to the Jews of the USSR and permit Soviet Jews who wish to emigrate, for purposes of family reunification, to leave Russia was adopted unanimously here this weekend at a conference of Latin American intellectuals who met here to discuss the situation of Soviet Jewry.
A companion resolution called on the conference secretariat to forward its principal measure to Soviet Prime Minister Aleksei N. Kosygin; to U Thant, secretary-general of the United Nations; and to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Twenty-one university deans and prominent writers from nine Central American countries, including Mexico, attended the two day parley — the first of the kind ever assembled. In addition, 25 of the leading artists, writers and other intellectuals from this country participated. Messages deploring the fate of Soviet Jewry and calling for action were received from the British philosopher, Bertrand Russell; Daniel Mayer, of Paris, president of the International League for the Rights of Man; and from a group of leading Argentine writers.
The major resolution emphasized that the conference dissociates itself from the cold war, but declared: “It is the duty of every intellectual to insist on the restoration of Jewish culture in the USSR, the reopening of Jewish schools in that country, freedom of worship for the Jewish minority, and permission to emigrate for purposes of family reunification to those who wish to emigrate.” One of the principal reports at the conference was given by Martin Luis Guzman, a Mexican writer, who warned that Soviet Jewry was threatened with “extinction” if the officially condoned discriminations against them were not ended.
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