A vigil across the street from the Soviet Embassy featured a solemn birthday celebration today for Boris Penson, the Jewish artist who is 27 years old today and languishing in a prison camp in Potma. Members of the Henrietta Szold Hadassah Chapter carried 27 large candles in Penson’s honor and shouted happy birthday greetings in Russian. The chapter also sent telegram congratulations to Penson and his mother.
Across the street at the Embassy at least one face was observed peeking from behind closed curtains throughout the proceedings, but there was no official reaction from the Russians. Penson was arrested in Dec. 1970 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. A collection of his paintings, smuggled out of Russia by a friend, is now on display at the Jewish Museum in New York and is expected soon to tour the country.
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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.
