Several hundred persons participated in an interfaith prayer vigil at the Christ Church Cathedral here marking the eighth anniversary of the imprisonment of Soviet Jewish Prisoner of Conscience Anatoly Shcharansky. The event was sponsored by the Interfaith Task Force for Soviet Jewry. The service was followed by a vigil outside the Soviet Consulate in Avenue Du Musee by the Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry.
Irwin Cotler, law professor at McGill University and Shcharansky’s international designated Counsel, said in a statement issued on the anniversary that Shcharansky’s plight is typical for the Soviet Union’s systematic abrogation of basic human rights.
(By Michael Solomon)
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.