300,000 Including Seven Governors Sign Petitions Pleading Cause of Soviet Jewry

Petitions signed by 300,000 Americans–headed with the signatures of the governors of the seven Northeastern states–and pleading the cause of Soviet Jewry were sent today to Premier Aleksei Kosygin in Moscow by B’nai B’rith District 1. The petitions call for the issuance of exit permits to Soviet Jews who wish to emigrate and point out that this is in keeping with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Racial Discrimination, both of which are supported by the USSR. The signatures were gathered in New York State and the six New England states which comprise B’nai B’rith District 1. Heading the petitions were the names of the governors of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. Many other state and various city officials also signed. The compiling of 300,000 signatures was a B’nai B’rith “family enterprise.” Joining the men and women of the Lodge and Chapter units were the boys and girls of the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization and the B’nai B’rith Hillel students at a number of campuses. Signatures were obtained in synagogues, churches, banks, shopping centers, railway stations and through door-to-door and house-to-house canvassing. The mammoth petition drive was part of the on-going campaign B’nai B’rith has been conducting continuously since 1960.