Unity with Soviet Jews was the watch-word in Israel today as 1000 delegates from 30 countries, including Israel, assembled in Brussels for the second World Conference on Soviet Jewry. Several thousand Tel Aviv residents, including many Soviet immigrants, university and high school students, participated in a solidarity rally in the municipal square. They were addressed by Social Welfare Minister Zevulun Hammer and Acting Mayor Yigal Grippel.
Both speakers stressed that only Jewish solidarity behind the struggle of Soviet Jews to emigrate could overcome what they described as the present-day “Pharaohs”–the Soviet authorities. Meanwhile, Premier Yitzhak Rabin was at Ben Gurion Airport to see off former Premier Golda Meir and Likud leader Menachem Beigin who departed for Brussels this morning.
The only sour note in the otherwise solid national front on behalf of Soviet Jewry was sounded by Meir Wilner, head of the pro-Moscow Rakah Communist Party. Wilner claimed the Brussels conference was nothing but a tool for incitement against the Soviet Union. He claimed that Jews enjoy all civil rights and freedom in the USSR.
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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.
