Leon Dulzin, Chairman of the World Zionist Organization Executive, bitterly denounced the trials of Soviet-Jewish dissidents Anatoly Shcharansky and Alexander Ginzburg at a meeting of the WZO Executive. “The cruel verdict against Shcharansky and Ginzburg speaks for an additional deterioration in the degree of justice which the Soviets are applying to Zionist activists in the Soviet Union,” Dulzin said.
He likened the Moscow trials to the moral equivalent of piracy and expressed the hope that the Kremlin would listen to logic. “Until then, we must continue to enlist all our resources in standing with our brothers in the Soviet Union,” Dulzin said. He mentioned his recent call to convene the Brussels Conference on Soviet Jewry.
“We will not rest until the basic human rights are ensured for Soviet Jews, until all prisoners of Zion are freed and until all those who desire to emigrate to Israel have reunited with us here,” Dulzin said.
Meanwhile, the WZO Executive issued a public statement calling on all liberation movements throughout the world to denounce the Soviet Union’s recent actions. It said: “We ask all fighters for freedom and justice in the world to raise their voices so that Shcharansky will be treated justly. We ask all Zionist federations throughout the free world to increase their activities protesting his trial. All the strength and resources of the Zionist movement will be devoted to ensuring liberty and peace for our brothers in the Soviet Union.”
Raphael Kotlowitz, Chairman of the Jewish Agency’s immigration department, noted that Shcharansky is paying the price for wanting to fulfill the Zionist ideal and has thus become a victim of the Moscow government’s persecution of the Jewish liberation movement. On the topic of immigration in general, Kotlowitz noted that 1,667 new immigrants reached Israel during the month of June, as compared with 1,498 persons who arrived during the same month last year. He reported that 957 Israelis who were living abroad returned to Israel during the first half of this year.
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.
