A delegation of the Jewish Students World Union decided today to send a petition on behalf of Soviet Jewry directly to Moscow, after an official of the Soviet Embassy here refused to accept the petition.
The delegation was received at the Embassy by a Soviet official but, when he was told of the reason for the visit, he said he could not accept the message because the Embassy in Paris was “not entitled to receive such petitions.” The petition included photostats of 30,000 signatures of Jewish and non-Jewish students gathered throughout Europe.
The petition, like similar protests and appeals in various other western countries, asked equality of cultural and religious rights for Soviet Jews, efforts by Soviet authorities to combat anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, and permission to Russian Jews to emigrate if they wished to do so. The group said it would continue its efforts. The signatories included some from Communist students as well as professors from many European universities.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.