A large tent, surrounded by large pictures of Israeli prisoners of war and Soviet Jewish prisoners of conscience was erected yesterday in Times Square in Manhattan. A joint project of the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry and the American Zionist Federation, the tent served as a focal point for a day-long demonstration and distribution of informational materials on Israel and Soviet Jewry. The mothers of two Israelis now being held in Syria were joined by scores of students from Touro College and Stern College in a noontime ceremony that included the symbolic lighting of a Chanukah menorah.
A display, including pictures of atrocities committed against Israeli soldiers captured during the Yom Kippur War, conditions in Soviet labor camps, and the recent trials of Soviet Jews, was set up in the tent and viewed by hundreds of passers-by.
William Hugget, author of the novel “Body Count,” and an authority on the treatment of American prisoners of war in Vietnam, spoke of the Syrian brutalities as the worst he has ever seen. Just returned from Israel, Hugget called on world public opinion to speak out against Syrian violations of the Geneva Convention. Others participating in the ceremony included David Disenhouse, director, American Zionist Federation of New York, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive director, Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry.
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