When Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau goes to the Soviet Union for a 10-day visit beginning tomorrow, he will discuss with Soviet Premier Alexsei Kosygin the problems of Soviet Jews, Barnett Danson, Parliamentary Secretary to Trudeau, told a Canadian Jewish Congress delegation. Danson said the Prime Minister would discuss the matter of emigration of Russian Jews to Israel, their cultural and religious rights as Soviet citizens, and convey the interest of the Canadian government in the right of Soviet Jews to reunite with their families in accordance with the promise Kosygin made in Paris in 1968. Meanwhile, 3,000 residents of Montreal signed a petition deploring the resumption of the trials in the Soviet Union. The petition was airmailed to Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny. A cable, sent separately to Soviet leaders by Monroe Abbey and Saul Hayes, president and executive vice-president respectively of the CJC, appealed to the Soviet government “in the name of humanity and compassion” to cease persecuting “people whose only desire is to join their people in Israel.”
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.