Anatoly Shcharansky’s participation in the annual Soviet Jewry rally here next month is evidence of the effectiveness of both public and private initiatives to aid the plight of Jews in the Soviet Union, rally organizers asserted Tuesday.
“That he is a free man dramatizes and gives strong credence to our belief that persistent public action coupled with private diplomatic initiatives can produce substantive results,” Alan Pesky, chairman of the Coalition to Free Soviet Jews, told reporters at a news conference at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the United Nations.
The Coalition, the umbrella agency and resource center for 85 metropolitan area organizations, held the news conference in order to announce plans for the 15th annual Solidarity Sunday for Soviet Jewry. The march and rally traditionally draws tens of thousands of persons and is considered one of the largest annual human rights demonstrations in the world.
Shcharansky, who has served as a leading symbol of the struggle for freedom of Soviet Jews at rallies in past years, will address the huge throng of demonstrators at the May 11 rally. The appearance will mark Shcharansky’s first visit to the United States, which is to include a scheduled meeting in Washington with President Reagan.
The long-term Soviet Prisoner of Conscience, jailed for nearly 10 years in the Soviet Union, was recently released in an elaborate East-West exchange of prisoners. He was accused by the Soviets of treason and anti-Soviet activities. A founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Watch group, he first applied to immigrate to Israel in 1973.
NO EASING OF SOVIET JEWRY PLIGHT
Shcharansky’s release, and that of other well-known Soviet Jewish refuseniks in the past months does not, however, appear to indicate an easing of the plight of Soviet Jews. According to the Coalition, more than 400,000 Jews have begun the emigration process and of this group, 20,000 have repeatedly been refused the right to emigrate.
“We intend to keep the issue of freedom for Soviet Jews in the spotlight of world opinion,” Pesky said. “Our task will not be complete until all are able to enjoy the fruits of freedom.” Only 47 Jews were permitted to leave the Soviet Union in March.
The annual rally, according to New York City Deputy Mayor Robert Esnard, “is really about the freedom of all people in the world, whatever their race or ethnic background, that they be able to live in peace and practice their religion, whatever it is.”
Esnard also told reporters that “Shcharansky is the greatest example of that, living as he did under terrible oppression.” He called the former Soviet Jewish refusenik “a symbol, actually a symbol that we all have some joy in, the fact that … he will be with us here on May 11.” Esnard noted that Mayor Edward Koch spoke with Shcharansky in Israel by telephone on February 16, just after his release, and extended an invitation to him to visit New York.
Joining Shcharansky at the rally on the speaker’s podium will be New York’s two Senators, Daniel Moynihan (D) and Alfonse D’Amato (R), John Cardinal O’Connor, and Israel’s UN Ambassador, Binyamin Netanyahu. The Coalition sponsors the annual rally.
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