Mandela Welcomed at Service by Fans and Religious Leaders

The sounds of trumpets, choirs, drums, dancing feet and chanting voices intoning “Nelson, Nelson” resounded in Riverside Church on Thursday morning, as Nelson Mandela addressed New York religious leaders and an enthusiastic crowd in an ecumenical service.

Local and national Jewish leaders were prominent among the religious groups that came to meet the South African black leader and extend to him a welcome to the United States.

“When our cause was not popular, it was the religious community, colleges and universities and anti-apartheid groups, that stood firm on sanctions. I am here today to say thank you,” Mandela told the adoring crowd.

He reaffirmed his call for continued economic sanctions and continued international pressure on the South African apartheid regime.

“To lift sanctions now before an irreversible change in apartheid would be a serious political error,” Mandela warned, which could “plunge us back into the darkness from which our country is trying to emerge.

“Stand firm. Your message must leave no doubt as to what the oppressed in South Africa demand — it is democracy.”

The atmosphere of the church was electric, as people stood with fists raised in solidarity to the anti-apartheid cause. Some chanted African slogans, others sang along to “We Shall Overcome” and “Amazing Grace.”

AN ETHNIC FESTIVAL

Following the singing of “Nkosi Silelel’i Afrika,” the African National Congress anthem, crowds thronged into the aisles of the church to dance to the “Toyi Toyi,” a dance created in ANC guerrilla camps.

The event took on the appearance of an ethnic festival. Prayers were read and chanted in Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew. Representatives of almost every religious faith in America, from the Greek Orthodox to the African Methodist Episcopal Church, had a role.

Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, opened the ceremonies with an invocation, and Ellen Stettner Math, cantor at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue here, chanted a psalm in Hebrew.

“That a rabbi and a cantor were involved were very important and couldn’t have escaped the notice of Nelson Mandela,” said Rabbi A. James Rudin, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee. “It was an important continuation of the communication begun in Geneva.”

Jewish leaders met with Mandela in Geneva on June 10 to seek clarification of some of the statements he had made regarding the Palestinians and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

It was only after Mandela convinced them of his support for the Jewish state that most mainstream Jewish groups decided to participate in the New York festivities.

“Geneva made it easier for us to respond,” said Albert Chernin, executive vice chairman of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council. “Had the meeting not been held, the issue would have been much more problematic.”

At a meeting with religious and lay leaders prior to the service, a declaration was affirmed by the approximately 160 leaders to “keep the pressure on,” to press for mandatory sanctions by the United States government and to support the release of all political prisoners.

“The meeting was very warm and friendly,” said Jean Rosensaft, Hebrew Union College national director of public affairs.

Other Jewish leaders who participated in the interreligious meeting with Mandela were Bernice Balter, executive director of the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism; Rabbi Jerome Epstein, vice president of United Synagogue of America; John Ruskay, vice chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary; and Rabbi David Saperstein, co-director of the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center.