Wujs to Launch World-wide Student Press Service; Offers to Stand-in for 33 Jews

Leaders of the North American region of the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) reported today that the 200 delegates to the union’s convention in Asbury Park, N.J., over the weekend had approved the inception of a Jewish Student Press Service and an affiliated newsreel service. The press service will coordinate and distribute news of the activities of the “hundreds” of independent on-campus Jewish student groups in the United States and Canada. The reports will be channeled to the 40 or so on-campus Jewish-interest publications, which were said by a WUJS officer to have a combined press run of 300,000 copies a month. The officer, David Kaufman of New York, newly elected member of the WUJS steering committee and co-editor of the new press service, added that the service would soon provide material to “five or six” European Jewish-student papers, one in Australia and all those in Israel. David Twersky of the Radical Zionist Alliance here was elected chairman of North American WUJS and will be co-editor of the press service.

The convention held workshops on the Middle East situation, Soviet Jewry. black-Jewish relations in America, the confrontation between American Jewish youth and the community, the urban crisis and relations with the New Left. The delegates–from some 15 states and 50 campuses–represented a diversity of Jewish student groups, including Yavneh, the Radical Zionist Alliance, Betar, Yugntruf, the Jewish Peace Fellowship, Jews for Urban Justice, Havurat-Shalom Community Seminary of Boston, the Jewish Liberation Project in Sasketchewan, six regional Jewish student unions, a number of Hillel organizations, the Jewish Defense League and student newspapers. Most of the delegates were Zionists and non-Orthodox, according to Mr. Twersky. He said that Jewish defectors from the New Left were helping build the Jewish student organisations. He described the new Jewish Student Press Service as in opposition to the Jewish Establishment and the New Left. Mr. Twersky denied that WUJS’ welcoming of JDL youth represented an endorsement of that organization’s national political views. noting that JDL has been effective in protecting Jews in black ghettos. “We want a feeling of community,” he said. “None of us can do it alone.” Twenty WUJS members staged a five-minute sit-in at the Soviet Mission and a 15-minute demonstration across the street on the steps of Park East Synagogue yesterday evening. The students, offering to stand trial in place of the 33 Soviet Jews facing “show trials,” were led from the Mission by the police. Bearing placards, they relocated on the synagogue steps until asked to leave by synagogue officials, after which they held a half-hour demonstration on the corner. A synagogue spokesman told the JTA the students should have sought advance permission before congregating on the synagogue’s steps.