Menachem Beigin, leader of the Herut wing of Likud and Labor Party Secretary General Meir Zarmi shared the dais here last night at a special meeting in B’nai B’rith House marking the fifth anniversary of the mass arrests of Jews in the Soviet Union who sought exit visas.
Beigin declared that Israel must unmask the “great Russian bluff” that there is no aliya because Jews do not wish to emigrate. World public opinion can force the Russians to open the gates and then thousands and tens of thousands of Jews would leave, he said. Beigin urged all parliaments in the free world to take up the question of Jewish political prisoners in the USSR and the suppression of emigration. He called for organized demonstrations near every Russian Embassy and legation in the free world.
Zarmi reported on the activities of the world socialist movement on behalf of Russian Jews, Shimon Grillos, a former prisoner in the USSR, warned that every Jew in a Russian prison faced the danger of death and therefore action on their behalf was urgent.
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.
