Jews and Ukrainians Rally to Demand the Release of Three Soviet Pocs

More than 100 Jews and Ukrainians assembled in an unprecedented joint human rights rally outside the Soviet Consulate here Monday to demand the release of three prisoners of conscience serving long sentences in Soviet jails — Anatoly Shcharansky, Yuri Federoz and Oulksiy Murzhenko, the latter two non-Jews.

The demonstration, organized by the Bay Area Council on Soviet Jewry and the northern California branch of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America was the first in which the two groups joined forces to protest the violation of human rights in the USSR. According to its sponsors, the two-fold purpose was to press for the release of the prisoners and to overcome cultural barriers between the Jewish and Ukrainian communities.

Federoz, a Ukrainian, and Murzhenko, a Russian Orthodox Christian, were the two non-Jews involved in the 1970 attempt to escape from the Soviet Union in a hijacked plane, which led to the famous Leningrad trials. The Jewish defendants have been released after serving all or part of their sentences and are now in Israel. Federoz and Murzhenko remain in prison. Shcharansky, a leading Soviet Jewish activist, is in the fourth year of a 13-year sentence for alleged treason. All three have been reported seriously ill in recent months.

Morey Schapira, president of the Bay Area Council, called for an immediate cut-off of all U.S. technology sales to the Soviet Union if the prisoners are not released. He was seconded by Oleh Weres, president of the Ukrainian group. Weres called for continued close relations between Ukrainians and Jews.