On the Eve of the Geneva Summit: Clerics Light ‘candles of Hope’ in Support of Soviet Jewry

On the eve of the summit meeting between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva, Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox and Jewish clergymen lit “candles of hope” here today in support of Soviet Jewry.

The candle-lighting ceremony was held on the steps of the Park East Synagogue directly opposite the Soviet Mission to the United Nations. Several Soviet officials milled about outside the Mission, some 50 feet away, seemingly paying little attention to the event taking place across the street.

After the ceremony, Allan Pesky, chairman of the Coalition to Free Soviet Jews, and William Martin, executive secretary of the ecumenical commission for the Catholic Archdiocese of New York, approached the front door of the Mission, each carrying a candle as a symbol of hope for a positive outcome to the talks in Geneva. As Pesky and Martin approached, the front doors were closed.

Along with Martin and Pesky, other participants in the ceremony included: the Very Rev. Alexander Doumouras, ecumenical officer of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America; Rabbi Israel Mowshowitz, assistant to Governor Mario Cuomo for community affairs; Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, a vice chairman of the Coalition to Free Soviet Jews; and the Right Right Rev. J. Stuart Wetmore, Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

The clergymen voiced hope that the summit meeting will contribute to world peace and a reduction of the nuclear threat, and at the same time lead to increased Soviet Jewish emigration and an end to the harassment and imprisonment of Jewish activists in the Soviet Union.

Soviet Jews who want to leave should be allowed to do so and those who remain should be able to enjoy human rights, Lookstein declared, adding “We fervently hope that the meeting in Geneva will contribute to these important goals.”