Governor Hugh L. Carey said in a message on the eve of Passover that “Even as we celebrate the courage of the Jewish people, and the tribulations they endured to win their religious freedom 4000 years ago, we sadly acknowledge that their trials are not yet over.” He noted that this past year alone, “we witnessed an avowed terrorist being allowed to use the forum of the United Nations to spread his hatred; and the continued suppression of freedom in Syria, the Soviet Union and other countries around the world. The lessons of tyranny have been repeated too many times for us to think that turning our heads the other way, or lowering our voices, will make it somehow disappear.”
Meanwhile, more than 120 Soviet Jews, in a Passover message received here by the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry and the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, appealed for “active support” for those in the USSR who are engaged in a continuing struggle for freedom. “We hope that at the celebration of the Passover seder every Jewish family will pronounce aloud the names of Mark Nashpitz and Boris Tsitlionok, who have for many years been forcibly separated from their families who live in Israel,” the message added.
In another action, the first public performance of a cantata written by a Catholic composer and dedicated to the victims of Auschwitz was given several days ago at an interfaith seder at the Washington Hebrew Congregation. The cantata, written by the late Nikolai Bretan, who was of Transylvanian origin, contained paraphrases from the Haggadah. About 200 religious and educational leaders attended the seder which was originated by Rabbi Joshua Haberman in 1971.
URGE SUPPORT OF ‘SOLIDARITY SUNDAY’
At the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York a group of prominent Christian and Jewish clergymen participated yesterday in a Passover seder coordinated by the Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry. The ceremony gave expression to the Passover-Easter spirit of man’s quest for freedom, The clergymen urged the Christian community to take part in “Solidarity Sunday for Soviet Jewry” on April 13.
They announced that through the cooperation of Dr. Dan Potter, executive director of the Council of Churches of New York, and Rev, Paul Stagg, executive director of the New Jersey Council of Churches, more than 3500 churches in the metropolitan area will call on their members to support Soviet Jewry’s struggle for freedom and to participate in “Solidarity Sunday.”
While the clergymen took part in the symbolic seder, a table nearby was set with hard bread (forbidden at Passover), tiny portions of fish and cups of water representing the Passover “fare” for Soviet Jewish “prisoners of conscience.” Huge photos of some of the prisoners occupied chairs at the Soviet-style seder.
In California a Catholic and Protestant parish helped commemorate Passover by holding seders. Both institutions were helped to arrange the traditional meal and observance by the Northern California Division of the American Jewish Congress. The two churches are the St. John of God Catholic Church in San Francisco, which held a seder co-sponsored by the church and the Newman Center of the University of California Medical School, and St. Stephen’s Parish in the Marin County town of Belvedere.
A new Haggadah focussing on the theme of liberation and freedom common to all religions was used by the Catholic medical students. There were also readings from contemporary Israeli poetry, Irish folk songs and special prayers for the 4500 Jews of Syria.
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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.
