Jdl Offers to Buy Plane Tickets for Two Soviet Jews Sentenced to Death

Police scuffled briefly with several members of the Jewish Defense League today outside the office of Aeroflot-In tourist (the official Soviet tourist agency) while inside JDL leader, Rabbi Meir Kahane, demanded that he be allowed to purchase two tickets to Israel for the two Russian Jews sentenced to death. Earlier today, Rabbi Kahane and an estimated 100 persons demonstrated in front of the offices of the New York Board of Rabbis, challenging them to get arrested “for Jews, as well as for blacks.” At the Aeroflot office, Rabbi Kahane told smirking Russian officials. “I’d like to purchase two tickets going from Moscow to Tel Aviv for the two Soviet Jews sentenced to death. These tickets are only the first in a series of tickets that will be purchased for the three million Jews living in the Soviet Union.”

The officials, who spoke to Rabbi Kahane from a balcony overlooking the main office, smiled to one another and challenged Rabbi Kahane to produce the money for the tickets. Meeting the challenge, Rabbi Kahane withdrew his wallet from his pocket, whereupon the officials told him that they would not sell him the tickets. “Go to Pan Am,” they insisted. Rabbi Kahane told newsmen that the Aeroflot Agency was obliged, “as a public place of accommodation to sell the tickets.” and that they were flagrantly violating this rule. He told newsmen that he would issue a summons on the Aeroflot officials for refusing to sell him the tickets. As Rabbi Kahane left the office escorted by policemen, he called out to the Aeroflot officials: “Remember–two Russians for every Jew” Outside, approximately 75 persons marched near the office, chanting slogans such as “Freedom Now,” and “Let my people go,” waving placards that read “Two Russians for every Jew” and “Stop Russian murderers.”

At the offices of the New York Board of Rabbis, whose doors were securely locked, Rabbi Kahane told newsmen that “We want the rabbis who marched in Seima to march now for the Soviet Jews. Rabbis got arrested for the blacks–let them get arrested for their brothers. We are asking the New York Board of Rabbis, which represents 1000 rabbis, to conduct a sit-in tomorrow at Foley Square.” (A massive rally has been called there tomorrow by the New York Conference on Soviet Jewry and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American organizations.) Meanwhile, some 30 persons continue to picket a block away from the Soviet Mission, as part of the continuous “100-Hour Vigil” sponsored by Betar, the JDL, the Ecumenical Council Against Religious Persecution and the Chaborah, to protest the severe sentences meted out to the defendants of the “Leningrad 11” trial. Despite biting cold winds, it was reported that at least 10 persons kept the vigil through the night.