Five Jewish political prisoners in the Potma labor camp in Soviet Mordovia have smuggled out a letter to “Jews of the world, our brothers and sisters” thanking them for their support. “We know of the unending struggle day after day you are conducting for us,” they wrote. “We are grateful to you and are convinced that the struggle will end in victory. We believe that this will be another victory of the united Jewish people.” The letter was signed by Leib G. Khanokh, Lassal Kaminsky, Arkady Shpilberg, Arkady Voloshin and Josef Mishner.
Separately, 32 Moscow Jews–including such prominent activists as Aleksander Lerner and his son, Vladimir; Gavriel Shapiro, and Vladimir Slepak–have written to United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim to protest that the Soviet authorities “illegally refuse exit permits.” The writers said they hoped Waldheim “will not forget that among the great problems facing the United Nations there is also the problem of Soviet Jews who wish to go to Israel, and that you will do all in your power to see that this right will be realized and that justice will be done.” Both letters were reported by the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry.
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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.
