For the first time since the Russian Revolution of 1917, Soviet Jews have petitioned their government to aid Jews in another country. Russian Jewish sources reported today that a group of Muscovite Jews wrote to the Kremlin’s Big Three–Communist Party chief Leonid I. Brezhnev, Premier Aleksel N. Kosygin and President Nikolai V. Podgorny–to intervene with the Damascus government for a cessation of restrictions on Syrian Jews. The names of the petitioners were not disclosed, but the sources said they were all activist Jews, many of whom have applied for migration to Israel. The petitioners based their appeal on humanitarian grounds and on the fact of good Russian-Syrian relations.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.