An estimated 100 Jews and Christians gathered yesterday outside the Soviet Consulate here to hold a “Freedom Seder for Soviet Jews,” according to the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews.
The noon, hour-long demonstration, which centered around a fully-set Passover table, was organized to draw parallels between the suffering of Jews in ancient Egypt and the present suffering by Jews in the Soviet Union, said Lillian Foreman, president of the Bay Area Council.
Chairs around the table, which was placed across the street from the Soviet Consulate, were left empty. Enlarged photographs of Soviet Jewish Prisoners of Conscience were set in a row down the center of the table. Foreman said “Jews in the Soviet Union cannot celebrate Passover, so we are doing it for them.”
Demonstrators sang Passover songs, listened to talks by rabbis and Christian leaders and heard messages of support from Mayor Dianne Feinstein and many California congressmen. Before dispersing, three rabbis left a seder plate and three boxes of matzohs on the Soviet Consulate doorstep.
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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.
