New York Jewry Unites Today in Protest Meeting Against Russian Religious Persecution

New York Jewry representative of all walks of life and of diverse shades of opinion will unite today in a protest against the suppression of the Jewish religion and the persecution of Jewish religious leaders in Soviet Russia.

Officials, rabbis and lay leaders, representatives of leading national and central organizations, together with the general Jewish public, will assemble this afternoon at Town Hall, to utter their condemnation and formulate their demand that the Soviet government cease its bitter campaign of proscription of religion in violation of the cardinal principal of human liberty, the right to freedom of worship.

A group of speakers will describe the anti-religious campaign of the Soviet authorities which has penetrated home, school and factory, entailing the confiscation of houses of worship, arrest of Jewish religious leaders, the deprivation of civil rights, the turning of children against their parents.

The principal speaker of the afternoon will be Hon. Simeon D. Fess, United States Senator from Ohio. Congressman Hamiltion Fish, Jr., author of the resolution introduced in the House of Representatives condemning the Soviet brutalities against religious leaders, will be among the speakers, who will include Nathan D. Perlman, grand master of the Independent Order Brith Abraham, Hon. Carl Sherman, former attorney general of the State of New York, Rev. Hirsh Masliansky, Israel N. Thurman, and Leo M. Glassman, newspaper correspondent. Bernard S. Deutsch, president of the American Jewish Congress, will preside.

The New York meeting is one of a series of nation-wide protest meetings arranged in leading Jewish centers throughout the country. One of the largest mass demonstrations will take place in Boston this afternoon in the historic Faneuil Hall. Addresses will be delivered by Governor Frank G. Allen of Massachusetts, Mayor James M. Curley, Congressman John McCormick, Hon. Joseph H. Warner, Rabbi Harry Levi, and Rabbi H. H. Rubenovitz. Samuel Kalesky will preside.

Among other outstanding communities which have arranged mass meetings are Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Rochester, Tampa, Norfolk, Paterson, Newark, Worcester and Chelsea, Mass., Camden, N. J., Pittsburgh and St. Louis.

Throughout the country, in addition to the mass meetings, lodges, beneficial societies, women’s organizations and young people’s clubs have arranged protest programs for the day. The lodges of the Independent Order B’nai Brith, the Independent Order Brith Abraham, the Independent Order Brith Sholom, and the Independent Order Sons of Israel in every section of the United States will dedicate their meetings to a consideration of the tragic plight of the Jews of Russia.