The presidium of the Brussels Conference on Soviet Jewry will meet at the end of October in Jerusalem, Leon Dulzin, chairman of the presidium and of the World Zionist Organization Executive, informed members of the presidium. The meeting will take place instead of the Third Brussels Conference for Soviet Jewry which was scheduled to have been held in Versailles, France, at the end of next month.
The new date for the Third Brussels Conference has been set for not later than the spring of 1983, according to a WZO communique. The precise date will be decided at the presidium meeting. Dulzin stressed that the campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry should continue at a greater pace, to maintain the continuity of the efforts to help Soviet Jews.
The decision to postpone the conference was taken after telephone consultations between Dulzin and Jewish leaders throughout the world, according to the communique. "The main purpose of the conference was to focus world public opinion on the tragic situation of Soviet Jewry," the communique explained. "The success of the conference, in the short and longer range, depended on the right timing and the ability to secure full success."
In view of world events, the timing of the conference was wrong. "World public opinion is presently occupied with events in Lebanon, in debates around President Reagan’s new (Middle East) plan, and the negative position of Arab countries, as it was expressed in the Fez conference."
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