The Brussels Conference for Soviet Jewry will meet here next October, Claude Kelman, vice president of the Brussels Conference presidium, announced. He said the conference will be held “as a matter of urgency” in view of the constantly deteriorating situation of Soviet Jews.
Kelmon, who attended a meeting of the preparatory committee here last week, said “they (Soviet Jews) are waiting for world Jewry to come to their aid at a time when they are the target of increased persecution and repression.”
The first two sessions of the Brussels Conference took place in the Belgion capital in June, 1970 and February, 1979. They helped mobilize world public opinion on behalf of Soviet Jewry. The Soviet Union began to grant exit visas to some of its Jewish citizens as a direct consequence of the Brussels meetings.
Kelman said the agenda for the October 15-16 meetings will be worked out later this month in Jerusalem by the preparatory committee. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin will attend the October session.
French Jewry is marking the month of May as “The Month of the Refuseniks,” with mass meetings, public demonstrations and appeals on behalf of the large number of Soviet Jews who have been denied exit visas.
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.
