Students from Washington-Baltimore area universities distributed leaflets protesting the treatment of Russian Jews today to visitors at the National Art Gallery where an exhibition opened of French impressionist and post-impressionist paintings owned by the Soviet government. Mrs. Michael Shapiro, chairman of the Soviet Jewry Committee of Greater Washington which is sponsoring the leaflet distribution, said the protest would continue for the entire 30 days of the exhibit except for the Sabbath and the Passover holiday.
Mrs. Shapiro said that woman volunteers would distribute the leaflets at both entrances to the gallery during the day and that men will take over the distribution after dark. The leaflets welcome the exhibit as an expression of freedom of art and state the wish that Jewish culture would be as free to exist in the Soviet Union.
No leaflets were distributed by the Washington JCC during two previews of the exhibit last week attended by Congressmen and their wives and by prominent Washington figures including Presidential advisor Henry Kissinger. Mrs. Shapiro told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the JCC did not consider distributing the leaflets at the preview showings but didn’t say why.
At a news conference in connection with the opening, Ekaterina Feytseva, the Soviet Minister of Culture, suggested that inquirers mind their own business when they asked about the Soviet position regarding the Russian ballet dancer Valery Panov who was fired from Leningrad’s Kirov Ballet company after applying for a visa to emigrate to Israel.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
