Sit-in Demonstrators Supported by Rabbis; Petition Asks Federation to Drop Charges

Seven rabbis, writer Elie Wiesel, professors and other community leaders issued yesterday a statement of support for the “fully peaceful and non-violent” student protest Wednesday at the offices of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York. They called on the Federation to withdraw criminal trespass charges against the 41 arrested activists and meet with them in “good faith” on their “just” demands for more “equitable financial aid to Jewish religious education and social projects. They said they “deplore Federation’s arrest” of the students and its “insensitivity” to their demands, which included $10,000 aid to the April 26 Exodus March for Soviet Jewry. They said Federation’s “refusal” to date tended to “weaken respect and support” for it, and that it should “reconsider its priorities and meet its obligations to Jewish youth and education.”

The 100 students, who staged the six-hour sit-in, the ad hoc Community for a Jewish Federation, charged Federation with procrastination and obstinacy in regard to their proposals. Federation executives, in turn, said their demands were under consideration and that no dialogue could be held under a state of siege. They said they felt “the utmost reluctance and deepest regret” at having to call the police. The 41 arrested were released yesterday afternoon on summonses returnable April 16. Among those joining Mr. Wiesel in signing the statement were Dr. Emanuel Rackman of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue; Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, Tehilath Jeshurun; Rabbi Norman Lamm, Jewish Center; Rabbi Steven Riskin, Lincoln Square Synagogue; Rabbi Charles Sheer, Jewish chaplain at Columbia University; and Prof. Eugene Borowitz, Hebrew Union College.