Nineteen students, all Jewish but one, who chained themselves to the gates of the Soviet embassy last December to protest the plight of Soviet Jewery will be tried in the District of Columbia Court of General Sessions tomorrow. Eighteen of the students wore name tags identifying them as representing one of the 18 Jewish families from ‘Soviet Georgia who sent a petition to the United Nations late last year asking to be allowed to emigrate to Israel.
The students are being charged with violating a 1938 district law that prohibits demonstrating or congregating within 500 feet of an embassy. The six lawyers for the group–two of whom are presently studying in Israel and will not be here for the trial–plan to challenge the constitutionality of the law, which was passed to prevent demonstrations outside the Nazi German and Austrian embassies in 1936. The students, from Washington area colleges were all part of the “New Washington Committee For Human Rights.” The maximum penalty for the offense is 60 days in jail and or $100 fine. Suit is being brought by the district government, at the request of the Soviet Union through the State Department.
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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.
