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Rev. Jackson: Plight of Soviet Jewry is Every Body’s Concern

January 14, 1975
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“Every body must be concerned” about the Soviet Jewry situation, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the prominent Chicago Black civil rights leader told representatives of the Washington Jewish community. His expression came at his meeting with the representatives at the Statler Hilton Hotel last week to discuss the local Jewish community’s participation in the demonstration here Jan. 15 for full employment and food for the hungry of America. The Rev. Jackson is head of PUSH (People United to Save Humanity).

The meeting coincided with the vigil opposite the Soviet Embassy for Dr. Mikhail Stern, who has been sentenced to eight years in prison by a Ukrainian court on charges of bribe taking and swindling. Dr. Stern had sought to emigrate to Israel when he was accused. The Rev. Jackson, who has condemned Gen. George S. Brown’s comments at Duke University as racist and anti-Semitic, issued a statement on Soviet Jewry which said in part:

“The cry for freedom on the part of the Jewish people falls upon the sensitive ears of decent and moral people everywhere, for history has proved that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. So everybody must be concerned. The time to resolve that social crisis is now–not tomorrow, not contingent upon trade, not contingent upon detente. Justice delayed is justice denied.”

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