Selma Light; Pioneer in Movement on Behalf of Soviet Jews

Selma Light, 77, a pioneer in the international movement on behalf of Soviet Jews. Her passion for human rights took her both to Moscow and Mississippi. She co-founded the San Francisco Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews with her husband, the late Harold Light, in 1967, and was elected honorary life president after her retirement several years ago. Mrs. Light was a close associate of prominent Soviet dissidents Andrei D. Sakharov, Yelena Bonner and Natan Sharansky. She also was instrumental in getting permission for Soviet ballet dancers Valery and Galina Panov to emigrate to Israel in 1974. Mrs. Light traveled to the Soviet Union to meet with dissidents in 1968 and 1975. She returned last year to preside at the opening of the Harold Light Emigration Center in St. Petersburg. Before taking up the cause of Soviet Jews, Mrs. Light was involved in the civil rights movement. She went to Mississippi during the 1960s to support the Freedom Riders there. In Santa Fe, N.M., on Saturday after a stroke.