4000 Attend Soviet Jewry Rally; Recent Emigre Appeals for Responsible Protests

Braving the bitter cold of 13-degree weather, an overflow crowd of 4000 persons turned out last night to hear Dr. Esther Aisenstadt, a recent emigre from the Soviet Union to Israel, appeal for responsible, dignified protest against Russian repression of its Jews. More than 2000 persons crowded into the Forest Hills Jewish Center and a similar number gathered outside to attend the demonstration sponsored by the Queens Council for Soviet Jewry. Dr. Aisenstadt, a former professor of language in Moscow, emigrated to Israel in Nov. and is currently touring this country together with her husband, Leizer Napomnyasty, Russian-English interpreter, and Mark (Mordecai) Elbaum, both of whom also emigrated to Israel at the same time. “The Jews of Russia wouldn’t have the courage to speak up if it weren’t for the protest activities of men, women and young people like yourself,” Dr. Aisenstadt declared. “The Soviet government should be approached by individuals, organizations and governments everywhere in the world,” she asserted. “Violence is not the answer to the plight of Soviet Jewry. It will only make matters worse for them,” Dr. Aisenstadt told an audience that gave her and her husband a cheering, standing ovation.

Rabbi Alvin M. Poplack, president of the Council, called Dr. Aisenstadt and her husband, “Jews no longer of silence, but Jews of courage. It was Dr. Aisenstadt and her husband who were among the first ten Soviet Jews to sign their names to the first collective appeal in September, 1969, addressed by Moscow Jews to the world. The couple was released in Nov. and this was their first appearance at an American meeting. “I shall never forget all the letters we received from people from all over the U.S.A.,” Dr. Aisenstadt said, as she appealed, “Don’t forget those still there. Send them letters and messages of support.” Telegrams to Anatoly Dobrynin, Ambassador of the Soviet Union to the United States and thousands of messages were sent to the families of those arrested in the show trials were sent by those assembled. Rabbi Herschel Schacter, chairman of the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry, told the gathering: “The USSR is perplexed and bewildered. They have absorbed and assimilated every one of the national entities that make up the Union except the Jews. Who would have dreamt, with all the USSR has achieved in space, in technology, in science, in industry, that in the one area we thought they would have achieved their greatest success – in the onslaught upon their Jewish citizens – they have failed completely.”

Rabbi Schacter observed that it must be a “miracle of our age” that young Jews “brought up in a totally atheistic society, have rebelled even against their own parents, and have openly and publicly demanded the right for Jewish self-expression.” The Rev. Samuel Holder, black minister who is president of the Queens Interfaith Clergy Council, recalling his recent visit to Russia under the auspices of the National Council of Churches, said he was discouraged from paying a visit to the synagogue in Moscow. Not seeing any youth at the synagogue, he inquired about them. “I was told that religious education in Russia may not be given to children under age 18,” he said, adding, “In this struggle for religious rights for the Jews of Soviet Russia, we clergymen are not only behind you but beside you.” Msgr. Archibald MacLees, pastor of the St. Pascal Baylon Church, St. Albans, and diocesan director of the Catholic Interracial Council, asserted, “Oppression for one minority is oppression for every minority.” The Catholic community of Queens joins you in working and praying for the release of those Jews in Russia who find themselves in spiritual bondage.”