400 Rally for Soviet Jews

Some 400 people, mainly youngsters, demonstrated today in front of the UN building, where Moscow Mayor Vladimir Promyslov was scheduled to pay an afternoon visit. The rally, sponsored by the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry, was designed to protest the harassment and discrimination against Soviet Jews.

“Save Soviet Jewry,” “Let My People Go Now.” “Mayor Promyslov, When You Go Home Remember Those Who Can’t,” and “Freedom Before Friendship,” were among the many slogans carried by the demonstrators. A group of 10 students dressed in prisoner’s garb sat around a table, which was set up in the demonstration area, and ate a “typical” meal served to Jews in Soviet jails. The meal consisted of a piece of black bread and herring with one cup of hot water. The young students wanted to symbolize the Soviet Jewish prisoner and his plight.

Stanley Lowell, Conference chairman, said that Promyslov “is the mayor of a city where Jewish activists are arrested…without cause or justification” and that “we are here to remind you–as you return to your home tonight–of those who cannot go home….We will not forget the prisoners of conscience, the Soviet Jewish scientists who are constantly passed and the 100,000 who have applied for permission to emigrate….”

Lowell added that Promyslov, as mayor of Moscow, is directly responsible for the closing of the main synagogue in his city on Yom Kippur and on the Sabbaths and other holidays. At the end of the rally some Jewish Defense League members tried to block traffic and enter the UN, but were prevented from doing so by the police. Ironically, reports had it that Promyslov was not at the UN during the demonstration but was having lunch at the Soviet Mission to the UN.