A group of prominent French intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winners, have appealed to the French government and to world public opinion to intervene on behalf of Soviet Jewish Prisoner of Conscience Anatoly Shcharansky who is serving a 13-year prison sentence in the Soviet Union and who began an Indefinite hunger strike on the eve of Yom Kippur.
Among the signatories of the appeal are scientists Alfred Kastler, Andre Lwoff and Francois Jacob; mathematician Laurent Schwartz; philosopher Vladimir Jankelvitch; and singer-actor Yves Montand.
At the same time, Lionel Jospin, Secretary General of the French Socialist Party, directly appealed to Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev, asking him to “respect the humanitarian principles included in the Soviet constitution” and permit Shcharansky to write and receive members of his family.
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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.