A nationwide Women’s Plea for Soviet Jewish Prisoners of Conscience will be conducted tomorrow, it was announced here by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and the presidents of 13 national Jewish women’s organizations. Events planned in more than 50 cities will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Soviet Republic. In New York, events will include a march in front of the United Nations headquarters, a mass rally in Hunter College followed by a march of thousands of women who will encircle the Soviet Mission.
At the same time, the presidents of the women’s organizations have written a letter to Mrs. Jacob Malik, wife of the Soviet Ambassador to the UN, asking her to meet with them tomorrow in the hope that “you will use your offices and whatever opportunities you may have to raise the issue of amnesty” for the Jewish “Prisoners of Conscience.”
Their letter to Mrs. Malik stated, in part: “As women and mothers we approach you out of our deep anxiety for the wellbeing and safety of some of our brothers and sisters who live in your country. Our concerns are human ones, having nothing to do with politics….We are coming to you because as a woman, mother and wife like ourselves, you may perhaps better understand and appreciate uncomplicated and direct feelings of caring and compassion….”
Meanwhile, seven Jewish women in Kiev, in a letter reaching New York through intermediaries, have asked American women for “your help to help our dream of Israel come true.” Advising the Women’s Plea for Soviet Jewish Prisoners of Conscience that they were “quite aware of your support for us,” the writers said “Israel seems a beautiful and remote dream to us.”
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