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Shalit letters delivered to Red Cross

September 23, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Jewish Agency for Israel lay leaders and community representatives met with the Red Cross to deliver letters written to Gilad Shalit.

At the meeting in Washington with Gail McGovern, CEO of the American Red Cross, and Mary Werntz, the head of delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Jewish Agency and Jewish Federation of Greater Washington leaders delivered hundreds of letters and postcards for the captive Israeli soldier from Americans across the country.

The delegation, which included Jewish Agency board Members Dede Feinberg and Norman Goldstein, and Washington federation President Susie Gelman and CEO Misha Galperin, thanked the Red Cross for its efforts to establish a line of communication between Shalit and his family, and urged the agency to continue to pressure Hamas to afford Shalit the basic rights of a prisoner of war under international law.

Werntz expressed her thanks for the letters and promised to send the correspondence to Red Cross headquarters in Geneva. She stressed that the Red Cross is in regular contact with the Shalit family and will not stop its efforts until Shalit is released. Hamas abducted Shalit in June 2006.

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