An air of optimism prevailed here today in the aftermath of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance’s visit on the eve of the Cairo conference. The feeling was based more on “atmospherics” than hard facts but it was enhanced by Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan’s remarks at a Foreign Press Association luncheon which hinted that Vance had been satisfied with the degree of Israeli flexibility at the forthcoming talks. Dayan said that Israel and Egypt could reach an agreement now but stressed that a separate peace was not the goal of the Cairo talks.
Dayan declined to discuss a report in the Jerusa- (Page 2 is not clear)
SOVIET EMBASSY ACCEPTS STATEMENT
In Washington, the Soviet Embassy today accepted a “statement of concern” on behalf of Soviet Jewry addressed to Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin delivered by the Greater Washington Women’s Plea for Human Rights for Soviet Jewry. This is believed to be the first time that the Embassy here did not reject a petition of this nature from a Jewish organization.
The statement urged the freeing of all Jewish Prisoners of Conscience, a ban on all forms of persecution of Jews and permission for all Jews to emigrate from the USSR who wish to leave. Earlier today a similar “statement of concern” was delivered to the White House where Dr. Joyce Starr and Marilyn Haft of the White House Office of Public Liaison said they would present it to President Carter.
Of the 66 cities, 43 held public candle lighting ceremonies, many with the participation of dignitaries, Ms. Levine reported. At many of these ceremonies massed voices were raised in prayerful pleas for “an end at last to the years of darkness and suffering of our brothers and sisters in the Soviet Union.” The prayer was incorporated in a leaflet titled “The Unlit Menorah,” originally developed by the Minnesota-Dakotas Action Committee for Soviet Jewry, a unit of the Jewish Community Relations Committee-Anti-Defamation League of Minnesota and the Dakotas, Ms. Levine said.
The Philadelphia launching spanned two days with the lighting of candles and a “Freedom Torch” at a community-wide Havdallah ceremony on the night of Dec. 3, followed the next day by a major protest outside the Moscow State Circus–a “Counter-Circus” featuring speakers, literature tables and balloons with the message “Free Soviet Jews.”
Boards of Rabbis around the country declared the Sabbath of Dec. 9 “Soviet Jewry Sabbath,” and so did Christian organizations, Ms. Levine reported. The programs typically featured special sermons, travellers describing their experiences with Jews in the Soviet Union, rabbis and ministers exchanging pulpits, and informal inter-congregational meetings.
OTHER ACTIONS OUTLINED
In addition, there were all-night vigils in churches in Atlanta, Ga., Richmond, Va., and Newark and Morristown, N.J.; an inter-faith program at the 340-year-old Pilgrim-built Central Church in New Haven, Conn.; a special program by the Inter-Religious Task Force on Soviet Jewry in Scranton, Pa.; and Soviet Jewry Sabbaths in Norfolk, Va. Churches and synagogues. “Events like these showed vividly that the plight of Soviet Jewry inflames the consciences of Jews and non Jews alike,” Ms. Levine said.
The dramatic events organized by some communities attracted wide media attention, such as the delivery by air of a “Freedom Torch” to lead a torchlight procession at an outdoor Chanukah festival in San Francisco, Calif.; the Dallas, Texas radio program featuring a telephone call to a Soviet Jewish family now in Israel; the exhibitions of works by refusnik artists displayed in New Orleans, Lo., Portland, Ore., and Springfield, Mass.
Solidarity Week coincided with the celebration of Chanukah and the 29th anniversary on Dec. 10 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
