3000 Youths in Rally to Protest Soviet Suppression of Jewish Rights

More than 3000 Jewish youths from major cities across the country began to assemble here today for a two-day demonstration to protest Soviet suppression of Jewish rights. The youths, from some 30 communities, began arriving early in the day and by mid-afternoon assembled at Farragut Square in the heart of the city midway between the Soviet Embassy and the White House. Many of the young men wore yarmulkas and the girls wore pins bearing such inscriptions as “Free Soviet Jews”; “Soviet Jewry Will Be Redeemed”; and “Israel Will Live.” Sheila Seiden, 14, a member of Young Judea in Baltimore, the daughter of a United States social security officer, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “I feel very strongly about the suppression of freedom for the Jewish people in the Soviet Union. That’s why I’m here. I’m a free person in the United States but my brothers in the Soviet Union are not.” Harold Bingham from Washington, wearing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology sweatshirt, said friends had told him about the rally and “I felt I should do something.” Asked if he was Jewish, the MIT freshman looked surprised and answered proudly: “Of course I am.” Margy-Ruth Greenbaum of New York, co-chairman of the North American Jewish Youth Council which is sponsoring the mobilization, told the JTA that a letter, signed by 83 Moscow Jews and recently smuggled out of the Soviet Union asking world Jewry to protest the repression of Soviet Jews and urging aid for their efforts to immigrate to Israel, would be read later in the day. The youths plan to march to the Soviet Embassy and then meet with U.S. officials from the State Department and individual congressmen.