The Soviet Embassy today refused to accept 100,000 petitions delivered to its doors on behalf of Soviet Jews but two Embassy officials met for 30 minutes with Enoch and Marjory Silverstein, the Chicago couple who organized the petition drive and transported the 54 steel-bound cartons from Illinois to Washington in their trailer. The Silversteins were accompanied by Rep. Sidney Yates (D.,III.). Judah Graubart, of the American Jewish Committee’s Chicago office and a friend, Harold Schweig, at their meeting with Viktor Isakov, the Embassy’s Political Counselor and Gregory Rapota, Press Officer. Yates said afterwards that there was no rapport with the Soviet officials. The petitions will be brought to the United Nations in New York tomorrow where they will be presented to the US Ambassador George Bush who will be asked to turn them over to the appropriate UN agency.
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.
