Protesting the plight of their fellow Jews in the Soviet Union, members of the Soviet Jewry Committee of the Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Boston greeted the Soviet cruise ship, S.S. Lermontov, as it entered Boston harbor this week with signs urging the Soviets to “Let My People Go.” Members of the committee approached the cruise ship in their own vessels, while others picketed along the Commonwealth Pier. The ship’s officers refused to talk to the committee members.
Robert Gordon of Sudbury, spokesman for the Soviet Jewry Committee, stated that the protest was not against the cruise ship, but against the Soviet government’s treatment of its Jews and its restrictive emigration policies. “While we see ships freely traveling the seas between our country and the USSR, and participate in cultural exchanges, supposed elements of detente, we do not witness free emigration, a human right which is guaranteed by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, of which the Soviet Union is a signator,” Gordon said.
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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.
