In response to the current stepped-up harassment, continued repression, drastically reduced emigration, and denial of human rights of Soviet Jews, an unprecedented assembly of Jewish leaders will convene in San Francisco, Nov, 16-17 at the Hyatt Union Square Hotel, it was announced by Robert M. Shafton, chairman of the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles Commission on Soviet Jewry.
Their goal will be to formulate new plans of action to alleviate the worsening serious situation and to make the American public more aware of the need to bring an end to the harassment of Jews in the Soviet Union. The conference, chaired by California Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk, will include distinguished leaders, Soviet Jewish experts and leading American government and public officials, according to Shafton. It will also serve as a prelude to the International Conference on Soviet Jewry, now in the planning stages, which will take place in Brussels in February.
The conference in San Francisco is part of the “Prisoner of Conscience Month” from Nov. 15 to Dec, 15 that was announced in New York by Stanley H. Lowell, chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. Activities will include campaigns, legal symposiums and marches in communities across the United States focused on the POC plight. Highlighting the month-long activities a nationwide “Women’s Plea’ will be held in 51 cities on Dec, 10, Human Rights Day. According to latest reports reaching the NCSJ, close to 40 POC’s are presently held in Soviet prison camps.
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