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Human Rights Day for Soviet Jewry Set

December 2, 1971
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Nine national organizations representing more than one million American Jewish women will sponsor activities in 27 cities throughout the US Monday to urge full religious and cultural freedom for Soviet Jews and the right to emigrate to Israel, it was announced today by Mrs. Charles Snitow, chairman of the Leadership Conference of National Jewish Women’s Organizations which is sponsoring the activities.

In their protest–marking the beginning of Human Rights Week at the United Nations–the Jewish women will be joined by religious, civic and government leaders of all faiths seeking relief on humanitarian grounds for Jews imprisoned in the USSR. They will focus on the plight of Silva Zalmanson. In New York, national officers of the nine groups will meet with George Bush, US representative to the United Nations, and present to him more than 100,000 petitions addressed to UN General Secretary U Thant urging him “to use your good offices and the offices of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations to exert influence on the Soviet Union to stop the trials, free the prisoners and grant the right of all Soviet Jews to live as Jews either in the Soviet Union or in Israel.”

In a proclamation designating Monday as “Human Rights for Soviet Jewry Day” in N.Y., Mayor John V. Lindsay urged “all citizens to support the courageous struggle for the three million Jews of the Soviet Union to be free.”

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