Jewish prisoners in Soviet prisons and labor camps place high hopes in the Jackson Amendment and international action on their behalf, Arkady Shpilberg said on his arrival here today. The 35-year-old Jewish activist from Riga who was recently released after completing a three-year prison sentence, was reunited with his wife Margaret and his daughters, Ruth and Yocheved, at Lod Airport this morning.
Shpilberg, whose family had preceded him to Israel, said, “I am happy to have fulfilled my dream and the goal of my struggle, but my joy cannot and should not overshadow the urgent need for vigorous efforts on behalf of those Jews whom I have left still imprisoned in Russian prisons and camps.”
He said there were times when it seemed that the Jewish public was becoming resigned to the fact that Jewish prisoners of conscience must remain in prison. This is the time, he said, to intensify the struggle for their release. He said the treatment of Jewish prisoners has deteriorated of late. Anyone who complains against the prison administration is thrown into solitary confinement, he said. Shpilberg arrived with 145 other Soviet-Jewish emigres, all of whom passed through the Schoenau transit center near Vienna during the past four days.
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