Three famous British mountain climbers, Ron Dutton, Maria Dutton and Ian Bryson, all of them non-Jewish, this week delivered a letter to the Soviet Ambassador at the Embassy here, which pleads for clemency in the case of Sylva Zalmanson Kuznetsov, the Soviet-Jewish engineer who is currently serving a 10 year sentence in a forced labor camp.
After a lengthy interview with an official at the Embassy, their letter of protest was accepted, but petitions pleading for Mrs. Kuznetsov’s release, which had been distributed last week at the time of their “Mt. Tryfan Climb for Soviet Jewry,” were rejected.
Last week a group of six mountain climbers–the renowned Mt. Everest climber, Don Whillans, his wife, Audrey Whillans, wrestler Adrian Street, all non-Jewish and Bryson and the Duttons–planted a banner on the summit of Mt. Tryfan (known as the “Mountain of Freedom”) in Wales. The banner stated: “USSR – Release Soviet Jews.”
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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.