Four demonstrators — two of them rabbis — were arrested last night after handcuffing themselves to the iron gate surrounding the Soviet Consulate here to protest the recent arrest of Hebrew teachers and Jewish activists in the Soviet Union.
While the four were handcuffed to the gate, a voice over the intercom from within the Consulate building was heard by reporters to say, “Shalom you Jewish scum. Go home.”
Across the street from the Consulate, 50 placard-waving demonstrators chanted Hebrew songs and demanded that Soviet Jews be allowed to emigrate. Nine of the demonstrators wore striped prison uniforms and were chained to one another.
Around their necks hung signs with the names of recently arrested Hebrew teachers including Alexander Kholmiansky, Yuli Edelstein, Yakov Levin and Mark Nepomniaschy. The name of Soviet Jewish activist Yakov Mesh, who was also recently arrested, was around the neck of another demonstrator.
Those arrested were Rabbi Ari Cartun, director of Hillel at Stanford University; Rabbi Sheldon Lewis of Congregation Kol Emeth in Palo Alto; Kathy Citrin, program director of Hillel at the University of California at Berkeley; and Joy Asfeld of Stanford Hillel.
The demonstration was organized by B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundations at Stanford, U. of Calif. at Berkeley, San Francisco State University, San Jose State University and the U. of Calif. at Santa Cruz.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
