Leningrad Sentences Received in Israel with Undisguised Fury

The Leningrad sentences were received in Israel with undisguised fury. Foreign Minister Abba Eban in a speech called the sentences “a shocking miscarriage of justice and distortion of the truth.” Immigrant Absorption Minister Natan Peled told an assembly of Soviet immigrants at the Wailing Wall: “These sentences were obviously dictated. It was a cowardly trial. But this will not deceive anyone. The strength of the Jewish people in the Soviet Union will endure. This verdict was criminal. But the Soviet Union will not succeed in its designs.” The chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Dr. William Wexler, told an Israeli radio interviewer that American Jewry would redouble its energy to help Soviet Jews. “Rest assured that we are all going to do everything we can,” he said. “We shall also appeal to the United Nations.”