Jewish activists from six cities in the Soviet Union have sent an appeal to the 35 nations now meeting in Belgrade to review the Helsinki Agreement. They charged that “None of the points of the accord to aid the emigration process is being observed by the. USSR,” the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews reported today.
The appeal, containing 19 signatures, accused the Soviet authorities of seeking “to destroy the movement for emigration.” It stated that “having signed the Helsinki Agreement, the Soviet authorities began a whole system of oppression, red tape, harassment and tyranny over emigration. Thousands of Jews are being held who already applied for exit.” The signatories include Profs. Alexander Lerner and Naum Meiman; Dr. Eitan Finkelstein, Vladimir Shachnovsky, Doctors Isai and Grigory Goldstein; Col. Lev Ovisisher, Vladimir Kislik, Aba Taratuta and Alexander Feldman. The latter is a recently released “prisoner of conscience.”
In an unrelated matter, the SSSJ and the UCSJ have sent condolences two Jewish families in the USSR whose 13-year-old daughters died recently. Galina Elkind, of Moscow, was killed in a traffic accident. Her family, having received exit visas, was preparing to leave. Ella Feinberg, whose parents are long term activists, died of asthma in Novosibirsk.
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