Ambassador Yosef Tekoah of Israel yesterday presented United Nations Secretary General U Thant with 11 appeals from Soviet Jews seeking to unite with their families and people in Israel. The Soviet Jews seeking to emigrate are from Leningrad, Riga, Kaunas, Vilnius, Kutaissi and Czernowitz. One of the appeals, addressed to Thant and signed by 33 people, asserted that “the Jewish problem in the USSR has not only not disappeared but, on the contrary, it has become more acute.”
The signers, who also appealed to world public opinion, concluded: “We are certain that in the final account justice will triumph and that the Soviet government will show a humane approach to our cause, but we cannot wait for this endlessly. Had our petitions been justly treated we would not have needed to make this appeal, and it is only the authorities themselves that force us to do so,” Ambassador Tekoah expressed appreciation for the Secretary General’s efforts to vindicate the human rights of Soviet Jewry.
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