Six national and regional leaders of the American Jewish Congress were arrested Wednesday as they sang “Hatikvah” and other songs in Hebrew at the gate of the Soviet Embassy here.
Those arrested were: Theodore Mann, who was just re-elected to his second two-year term as president of the AJCongress; Theodore Bikel, an AJCongress senior vice president; Jacqueline Levine, honorary chairperson of the governing council; and Henry Siegman, the organization’s executive director.
Also arrested were Steve Israel, director of the Suffolk Country office of the Long Island division, and Martin Raffel, director of the Pennsylvania region.
The demonstration took place after the AJCongress ended its national biennial convention, attended by some 500 delegates at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.
LED AWAY BY POLICE
Some 30-40 delegates gathered a block-and-a-half from the Embassy from where the six were driven by car to the Embassy. Police there had been alerted in advance that they were planning to break the law against demonstrations within 500 feet of an Embassy. The six AJCongress leaders walked up to the Embassy gate and began singing “We Shall Overcome” and Hebrew songs including, “Hatikvah.”
As they continued singing, they were led away by police one by one and placed in a patrol wagon after being frisked and handcuffed. They were released later on $50 bail each, pending a hearing Thursday morning.
EFFORT TO DRAW PUBLIC ATTENTION AGAIN
“Our arrest today is an effort to draw public notice once again to the unremitting oppression of Soviet Jews,” the six who were arrested said in a written statement. “We know that our arrest cannot mitigate the official abuse to which Soviet Jews are daily subjected, but it is the least we can do in an effort to break through the anonymity of their persecution.”
Bikel told reporters that American Jews are “frustrated” because after Anatoly Shcharansky was released they had hoped it was a sign that there would be an improvement.
The 61-year-old actor and folk singer said it is hoped the arrests will draw attention to the plight of Soviet Jews. But he said those arrested were also doing it for themselves because they need to feel that justice will be done.
Mann said that the Reagan Administration has done everything possible for Soviet Jewry. But there is a need now for American Jews to raise the “level of demonstrations,” he added.
Mann, Siegman and Bikel were also arrested in Washington on December 10, 1984, in a protest at the South African Embassy against apartheid.
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