Chanting “Am Yisrael Chai,” and carrying posters of Soviet Jewish dissidents, 16 people, including 14 Rabbis from the New York metropolitan area, were arrested here today after staging a protest demonstration at the en trance to the Soviet Mission to the United Nations. The police charged them with “disorderly conduct” and gave them summonses for a court hearing on June 3.
The demonstration was sponsored by the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, the Rabbinical Assembly and the New York Board of Rabbis. Similar demonstrations were held today in front of the Soviet Embassy in Washington and the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco.
“We are here today to protest the on-going persecution of our brethren in the Soviet Union,” Rabbi Allan Meyerowitz, Soviet Jewry chairman of the Rabbinical Assembly, said in a short speech to the demonstrators. “We are acting today to prevent memorial meetings” for Russian Jews 40 years from now. The Kremlin, through the KGB, is in the midst of a vicious attack on the third largest Jewish community in the world.”
He said that the demonstration was held today, May 1, in order to show that the ideals of the Soviet revolution, which is celebrated today, did not apply to the Jewish citizens of the Soviet Union.
Before they were arrested, the demonstrators, who wore prayer-shawls, blew the shofar and recited prayers. They also carried a “Safer Torah” (Torah scroll) and took it with them to the police station where they were booked.
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