In response to the devastating earthquake that rocked Soviet Armenia Wednesday, B’nai B’rith International has pledged to donate $2,500 in emergency relief funds for the victims.
A check was to be presented Friday morning to Minister-Counselor Oleg Derkofsky of the Soviet Embassy in Washington.
The quake, which is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people, curtailed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s visit to New York. He returned to Moscow on Thursday to assess the “serious destruction” to the mountainous section of western Armenia, where the republic’s second-largest city, Leninakan, is situated.
Refuseniks in Moscow and Leningrad have also reacted with sympathy to the victims of the disaster by calling off a hunger strike planned for Human Rights Day, according to the Long Island Committee for Soviet Jewry.
The refuseniks issued a joint statement saying, “In memory of the Armenian victims of the earthquake, we have decided to cancel our planned hunger strike on Dec. 10, and , in deep sorrow and regret, we offer our assistance.”
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