The history, development and present condition of the Jews in the Soviet Union will be detailed during Soviet Jewry Week scheduled to be held throughout Israel in 1966, it was reported here today by Dr. Arieh Tartakower, chairman of the World Jewish Congress executive in Israel at a luncheon in his honor.
The Israel Government, Jewish Agency, trade unions and other authorities were cooperating in the preparations for the Week, Dr. Tartakower reported. The Soviet Jewry Week, he said, will feature meetings in all of the major cities of Israel, lectures and discussions in the schools, and a special traveling exhibit of materials–books, religious objects, art works, pictures and demographic information–that will reflect Jewish life in the Soviet Union.
The World Jewish Congress, the Israel leader revealed, was now working on a history of Russian Jewry and study of Jewish life in the USSR that will be ready in time for the Week. He said that detailed plans would be transmitted to all World Jewish Congress affiliates throughout the world with the object of similar weeks being organized by other communities.
Dr. Tartakower also reported that the WJC Israel executive was engaged in a program to pay honor to a number of non-Jews who, during the Hitler regime, had saved Jews from death in a number of countries. “Many of these heroes are now in poor circumstances,” he said, adding that help was being extended in about 30 cases, some of whom are now living in Israel. Others are brought to Israel so that they can receive a special medallion that has been struck to honor their heroism.
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