Avital Shcharansky warned today that if the U.S. signs a document ending the Madrid Conference on Human Rights and Security, it would endanger her husband. Anatoly, as well as the entire human rights movement in the Soviet Union.
She told a press conference at the Capitol that she was “very upset” when she heard about the possibility of the U.S. signing the compromise agreement, when she arrived from Jerusalem this morning.
She was in Washington to address a two-hour vigil on the Capitol steps marking the fifth anniversary of the end of her husband’s trial in Moscow, at which time he was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment. Mrs. Shcharansky is scheduled to meet British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in London tomorrow.
About 100 persons attended the Capitol rally today in broiling 90 degree heat, some of them joining in the call by the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) to fast all day. In addition, some 100 members of Congress participated in the event which was organized by Reps. Robert Mrazek (D. NY) and John Porter (R. III.).
Reports today that the U.S. will sign the compromise Madrid document were coupled with claims that there were assurances from the USSR that it will allow some dissidents to emigrate by the end of the year. But none of the more prominent ones would be among them, such as Shcharansky and Yuri Orlov, both of whom are in prison, and Andrei Sakharov who has been exiled to Gorky.
Mrs. Shcharansky stressed that if the U.S. signed the agreement before her husband and other dissidents were released, it would doom them. She said her husband has become a symbol both within and outside the USSR. She said Shcharansky has been used by the Soviet government to threaten Jewish would-be emigrants, many of whom are told that if they don’t remain quiet, “you are going to be another Shcharansky.”
Mrs. Shcharansky, who met with Secretary of State George Shultz when he was in Jerusalem recently, said he assured her that the U.S. would continue to do its best “to save my husband.”
REAGAN: ‘SOVIET JEWRY IS OF HIGH PRIORITY’
President Reagan, in a telegram to today’s rally, stressed that “the issue of Soviet Jewry is of high priority to this Administration.” He said the U.S. “will continue to seek opportunities to encourage the Soviet Union to respect human rights and to live in accord with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements to which it has subscribed.”
At both the press conference and the rally, Mrs. Shcharansky expressed concern about the health of her husband who was seen by his mother and brother on July 5 for the first time in 18 months. She said he is still weak from his fast which began last Yom Kippur and ended last January 15, that he appears to be suffering from chest pains and is still suffering from the effects of beatings he received from prison guards when he was being force-fed. But, she noted, he remains optimistic.
Rep. Porter, calling the claims of the Soviet Union’s recently set-up Anti-Zionist Committee “outrageous lies,” said if the USSR wanted to prove that Jews no longer want to emigrate, it should “allow all Jews who want to leave to do so now.” He said he believed that at least more than 700,000 Jews would leave if they were allowed to go.
Lynn Singer, president of the UCSJ, called the situation of Soviet Jews “desperate” and urged all Americans to do what they could to “save Soviet Jewry before it is too late.” She said Americans should work together to realize their dream of “next year in Jerusalem.”
Morris Abram, making his first public appearance as the new chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, said the Soviet Union was “the only great power on earth that practices anti-Semitism as a matter of state policy within its borders and anti-Semitism on the world stage outside its borders.” He said the USSR should be “shamed” for its anti-Semitism throughout the world just as South Africa is shamed for its apartheid policy.
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.
