Several thousand residents of this subur an New York community participated here in a 24-hour “Eternal Light Vigil for Soviet Jewry” which ended tonight, after an unusual, community-wide and inter-religious demonstration aimed at calling attention to what was termed the Soviet Government’s “religious genocide” directed against Soviet Jewry.
The vigil, begun at 7 o’clock last night, culminated at that hour this evening with the unanimous adoption of a petition to the Moscow Government, demanding “a full measure of equality” for Russian Jewry and the eradication of “all vestiges of anti-Semitism” in the USSR.
The vigil had been sponsored by 20 synagogues, Christian churches and other religious and secular organizations in this area. Among the major participants in the 24-ho demonstration were Rabbi Ario S. Hyams, of Temple Beth Sholom, Roslyn, where the vigil was conducted; Socialist leader Norman Thomas; the Rev. Francis S. Bain, of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church; the Rev. Thomas P. Stewart, of the Roslyn Presbyterian Church; the Rev. Charles H. Ancrum, of Friendship Baptist Church; and Rep. Lester Wolff, a Democrat who represents this district in the House of Representatives.
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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.
