A group of 100 Jews marched to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in Moscow today and presented a petition demanding justice for the Jews scheduled for trial in Leningrad, Riga and Kishinev, according to a telephoned report from the Soviet capital. The caller was Michael Sand, a Jewish journalist and scholar specializing in Persian literature, who earlier this week interrupted a presentation by 60 Soviet Jewish leaders in the Choral Synagogue and declared that they were apologists for the regime and not representative of Soviet Jewry. Sand reported today that the 100 petitioners asked that the accused Jews be allowed to engage foreign attorneys and that the trials be held in open court and accessible to foreign newsmen. He said five of the protestors were received by a representative of the Supreme Soviet, who promised that their petition would be forwarded to the proper official. Today’s demonstration was the fifth in a series of unprecedented actions by Soviet Jews over the past two months. Most recently, on March 10, more than 100 Soviet Jews sat-in inside the Presidium building.
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.
