Glenn Richter, national coordinator of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, said today that a United Nations official had said that UN representations would be made to the Soviet Union about Dr. Mikhail Stern, currently serving an eight-year term in a labor camp on charges of bribery. The official, however, declined to specify when or how the representations would be made.
Richter and three members of the Betar Youth Organization met with Edward Lawson, acting director of the UN Human Rights Commission, and I. Lutem, Liaison officer between the New York and Geneva offices of the Commission. The meeting followed a peaceful five-hour sit-in yesterday by a dozen members of Betar in the meditation room of UN headquarters. The Betar members left peacefully after extracting a promise that a meeting would be granted. No action was taken against them.
Richter said he and the three Betar youth spoke to the two UN officials for an hour, mainly about Dr. Stern, asking for immediate intervention on the Soviet Jewish doctor’s behalf “because Dr. Stern has said he expected to survive no longer than three or four months under the conditions in which he is being held” in the labor camp.
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.
