Mayor John V. Lindsay said today that the current trial of Soviet Jews in Leningrad is a source of great distress to all people of good will. “Their only crime,” he declared in a statement from City Hall, “is that they want to live as Jews, that they want to migrate from the Soviet Union to be reunited with their families in Israel and other countries.” He expressed the hope the Soviet leaders will recognize this fact and accord “them their legitimate rights as Jews and as free human beings.” Continuing, Mayor Lindsay stated: “I know that all New Yorkers ask for justice for people who have committed no crime but have only desired their religious and cultural freedom. If the Soviet leaders are to perform justice, let them drop the charges against the Jewish defendants who are not defendants but victims, and give them the rights that are due them. This would be a true act of justice.”
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