President Carter has been asked by 57 leading Israeli public figures to appeal to President Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union on behalf of imprisoned dissident Anatoly Shcharansky. They expressed concern that he may not survive conditions at the Chistopol prison camp, where he is being held, and that his health has seriously deteriorated.
The letter from the Israelis said that Shcharansky is suffering from constant severe headaches, is rapidly losing weight and shows signs of “internal cerebral inflammation.” It asked the President to speed up attempts to obtain Shcharansky’s release, “otherwise we fear it may already be too late. Signatories, many of them former Soviet refusniks, include Silva Zalmanson, Leonid Slepak and 16 academicians. The text was released here today by the Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
