Members of a Lutheran congregation here are celebrating their Christmas by organizing support for Soviet Jewry. More than $100 has been raised from a series of open house parties given by the Luther Place Memorial Church. The fund-raising drive is spearheaded by Pastor John Steinbruck, whose interest in the cause of Soviet Jewry is a long-standing one. For the past two years Pastor Steinbruck has participated regularly in the daily vigil at the Soviet Embassy.
He was instrumental in his congregation’s adoption of a Soviet Jewish prisoner, Valery Kukui. Members of the congregation send letters to Kukui regularly and have attempted to get through to him by telephone several times. They have also planted a tree in his name in Israel. Pastor Steinbruck disclaims his motives for helping Soviet Jews are primarily altruistic. Involvement with this cause, he maintains, enables members of his congregation “to fulfill themselves as Christians, to be what they profess to be.”
Pastor Steinbruck believes that the gospel provides not only a justification, but a mandate for aiding all oppressed people. This Christmas, the Pastor said, the issue of Soviet Jewry has given purpose to festivities of his congregation. “Next year,” he says, “we hope to have more time to plan projects more carefully. But of course,” he concluded, “I would rather hope that by then we won’t have to.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
