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3 Are Honored for Defending Rights of Jews
THE NEW YORK TIMES December 9, 1984 By KATHLEEN TELTSCH Three people have been named this year's winners of the Jabotinsky Prize for "outstanding service in defense of the rights of the Jewish people." The three — Yehudah Z. Blum, Israel's former chief delegate at the United Nations; Anatoly B. Shcharan-sky, the imprisoned Soviet dissident, and Beate Klarsfeld, who helped uncover a number of Nazi war criminals — will share a $100,000 award made by the Jabtotinsky Foundation of New York. The selections by a 12-member jury were announced a; a ceremony at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan last week by Eryk Spikier, president and chairman of the foundation. Both the foundation and the award are named for the late Vladimir Jabo-tinsky, a militant Zionist, author and the political mentor of a number of Israeli leaders, including former Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The awards are made to Jews and non-Jews. This is the second year the group has given the award. Mr. Blum, a specialist in international law and a former concentration camp prisoner, was honored for his defense of Israel during his six years as chief delegate. He continued his diplomatic assignment until 1984 "at great personal sacrifice," an allusion to his having interrupted his academic career by leaving his tenured position as a faculty member at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is now a lecturer in Israel and elsewhere. Mr Shcharansky was honored as a "prisoner of conscience" who fought for the rights of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel and also to practice their religion in freedom. A specialist in computer technology Mr. Shcharansky lost his position in 1973 when he tried to emigrate. He was arrested four years later and tried on charges of treason, anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. He was recently moved to a Soviet labor camp and is said lo be in failing health. Mrs. Klarsfeld was honored for her work in identifying Nazi criminals and "securing the rights of the Jewish people for international justice for the crimes of the Holocaust." She recently went to Paraguay, where she sought the Government's help in bringing to justice Dr. Josef Mengeie, the former Auschwitz camp doctor who experimented on Jewish prisoners. Dr, Mengeie is believed to be living in Paraguay. The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation has published a number of books and documents relating to the deportation of the Jews of Belgium and Rumania. |
