Hillel Lobby

Thirty-two members of the Harvard Hillel joined more than 600, other students yesterday in Washington. D.C. to lobby for Congressional action on behalf of Soviet Jews.

The Washington lobby, organized by students at Brandeis University, was part of a nation wide International Student Solidarity Day for Soviet Jewry, an effort to convince Congressmen of constituent concern over the deteriorating living conditions and religious persecution of Jews in the communist nation.

According to Harvard organizers, the one day effort consisted of briefings by State Department officials and authorities from national Soviet Jewry organizations, followed by afternoon visits to congressmen from the students respective home states.

The student lobbyists asked senators and congressmen to "adopt" a refusenik, the name given Jews denied permission to leave the Soviet Union, said Judith Stern '84, an organizer of the Harvard group.

This is the fifth year Harvard has participated in the lobbying effort which Brandeis students initiated seven years ago.