More than 200 members of the local Jewish community demonstrated today in front of the Soviet Consulate in protest of the harsh sentences imposed on Jewish dissidents Vladimir Slepak and Ida Nudel. The Soviet Consul, Vladimir Gavrutchkin, accepted a letter from the demonstrators in which he was asked to transmit to his government the reaction of Montreal’s Jews against “the violation of the Helsinki and other international agreements, a fact which would harm Canada-USSR relations.” Martin Penn, director of the Montreal Committee for Soviet Jews, spoke about the injustice rendered those Jews who want to leave for Israel. Rabbi Sidney Shoham led the demonstrators in reading certain passages of the Psalms.
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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.