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Meeting Will Scrutinize
Soviet Human Rights
New York (JTA) — An up-
coming conference in Paris
will test whether the Soviet
Union is living up to its
human rights commitments
and whether the United
States is willing to single out
Soviet abuses at a time of
warming relations between
the two countries.
So say a number of non-
governmental organizations,
including Soviet Jewry
groups, which plan to send
delegations to the Paris Con-
ference on Human Di-
mensions, which opens May
30 in the French capital.
The conference, which runs
through June 23, is being
held under the auspices of the
Conference on Security and
Cooperation in Europe, the
35-nation human rights pro-
cess that produced the
Helsinki human rights ac-
cords in 1975.
In January, the Soviets
signed a 35-nation human
rights agreement committing
themselves to a far-reaching
range of freedoms, including
freedom of information,
travel, equal rights and
religion.
The document, signed in
Vienna at the end of a two-
year process, also promised
significant improvements in
the right of Soviet Jews to
emigrate.
Delegates to the Paris con-
ference will review media ac-
counts, diplomatic reports
and eyewitness testimony to
determine who is and is not
complying with the Vienna
document.
The Paris conference will be
"an opportunity to test the
principles of Helsinki, Madrid
and Vienna — to test the
practices of the states against
the principles they've agreed
to," according to Morris
Abram, the chief U.S.
delegate to the conference.
The Soviets are banking on
that conference to build
prestige among their citizens,
allies and the West. A
Western pullout would be
disastrous.
"The Soviets know that the
United States fully expects
continued progress in human
rights until then," said
Abram. "They know that
backsliding or lack of pro-
gress would cause us to recon-
sider our decision to attend."
Martin Wenick, executive
director of the National Con-
ference on Soviet Jewry, said
the Soviets need to be press-
ed to codify emigration
reforms, as they promised in
Vienna.
Asked if the United States
seems willing to exert that
pressure, Wenick replied,
"Our feeling is that all coun-
tries ought to be pressed
equally on their commit-
ments. It would be a mistake,
if that is what the State
Department is doing, to stress
the lack of commitment of one
country over another."
Soviet Jewish Cultural
Activists To Meet In Riga
New York (JTA) — Jewish
cultural activists from
throughout the Soviet Union
will meet in Riga next week.
It will be the first time in
memory that such a national
Jewish gathering has taken
place in the Soviet Union.
The meeting was announc-
ed by Emmanuel Zinger,
director of the Jewish
Cultural Society of Vilna, at
a news conference convened
jointly last week by the
Workmen's Circle and The
Forward Association,
publisher of the Yiddish
newspaper.
Zinger, a 32-year-old Jewish
cultural activist who speaks
fluent Yiddish, was invited to
New York by the YIVO In-
stitute for Jewish Research,
which began in Vilna in 1925
and is now based here.
YIVO extended the invita-
tion to Zinger expressly so
that the Vilnius scholar could
study Yiddish literary
manuscripts in the YIVO col-
lections, many of which come
from Vilna. Zinger pursued
his research with the help of
Professor Benjamin Harshav,
a specialist in Yiddish poetry
and literature.
Zinger, who gave a lecture
at the Workmen's Circle im-
mediately following his news
conference, spoke of the sup-
port the Vilnius Jewish com-
munity has received from
non-Jewish Lithuanians,
whose budding nationalism
has allowed a revival of
Jewish culture in a city once
known as the Jerusalem of
Lithuania.
The Jewish community of
Vilnius received help in set-
ting up its Jewish cultural
center from the Lithuanian
government.
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