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Conference of U.S. Intellectuals to Discuss Situation of Soviet Jews

October 7, 1963
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Eighty to 100 of the foremost intellectual leaders in the United States, the vast majority of them non-Jews, will gather here next Saturday to consider the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union, it was announced here today.

The all-day conference, to be held in the auditorium of the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace, has been summoned by U. S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of the non-violent phase of the Negro integration movement; Walter Reuther, president of the United Automobile Workers of America and a vice-president of the AFL-CIO; Norman Thomas, American Socialist leader; the Rt. Rev. James Al Pike, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of California; Herbert H. Lehman, former U.S. Senator and ex-Governor of New York; and Robert Penn Warren, famous American novelist and poet.

Acting as individuals, the seven sponsors of the session have invited a cross-section of other American leaders to hear reports about the situation of the Jews in the USSR, and to consider means for relaxing anti-Jewish practices condoned by Soviet authorities. According to the sponsors, it is hoped that the meeting may result in the acceptance of an action program upon which those in attendance would agree.

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