Mayor Designates December As ‘human Rights for Jews of the Soviet Union Month’

Mayor Hans G. Tanzler Jr. has designated December as “Human Rights for Jews of the Soviet Union Month.” In a proclamation, he said that “It is fitting that we give thought to the situation of three million Jews in the Soviet Union, the largest Jewish community in the world outside the United States, who are denied the fullest means of religious and cultural self-expression based on the rights guaranteed them by Soviet law.” Mayor Tanzler declared that “Together with millions of our fellow Americans of all faiths, we appeal to the government of the Soviet Union to restore to Soviet Jews their full rights and to grant to those who wish to leave the right to be reunited with their war-torn families and to join their brethren, whether in Israel or in other countries.” The mayor also criticized the “wave of arrests of young Russian Jews, beginning June 15, 1970,” which he said “has now reached alarming proportions, with a nationally publicized ‘show trial’…scheduled…to make an example of Jews wishing to exercise their legal right to migrate to Israel.” Mayor Tanzler noted that Dec. 10 is Human Rights Day and that the Dec. 22-30 Hanuka celebration marks “an ancient victory over oppression.” Of this city’s estimated 490,000 population, 4,500 are Jews, Attending the signing of the proclamation were Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins of the Jacksonville Jewish Center, Rabbi Sidney M. Lefkowitz of the Jewish Temple, and two officials of the Jacksonville Jewish Community Council–Leon Irgang, president, and Ben Friedman, vice president.