Jewish college youth from 30 campuses in the United States and Canada convened here today to protest against the treatment of Soviet Jewry and to make plans to help alleviate their plight. The youngsters, hailing from 25 cities, were attending the first national assembly on Soviet Jewry sponsored by the North American Jewish Youth Council in cooperation with the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry. The gathering was addressed by Rabbi Ralph Simon, president of the Rabbinical Assembly, who told the 250 delegates that “the Soviet Union has intensified its course, aimed at the conscious obliteration of Jewish history and culture within its borders.”
Rabbi Simon denounced Russia as “the only country that has uttered no protest of mass hangings of Jews and others in Iraq last week.” One of the first projects on the assembly’s agenda concerned assistance to the Jewish community of Odessa in Russia to rebuild its only synagogue which was destroyed by fire recently. The assembly urged demonstrations of solidarity with Soviet Jewish youth. The North American Jewish Youth Council claims to represent 500,000 Jewish high-school and college students. Its national chairman is Jerry Epstein, a student at the Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) in New York.
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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.
