More than 5,000 youth and adults, carrying banners identifying the more than 50 Jewish participating organizations, marched in a mile-long parade for Soviet Jewry last night. The parade, largest demonstration of its kind in Philadelphia history according to Malcolm Hoenlein, director of Research and Programming of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Philadelphia, began at the Monument to the Six Million Jewish Martyrs and ended at the Philadelphia Art Museum where a program was held featuring the Noam Singers of New York and Zvi Barulfan. an Israeli residing in Philadelphia. The evening’s events were sponsored by Jewish youth and collegiate organizations and coordinated by the JCRC. The program began with a prayer for Soviet Jewry by Rabbi Joseph Teichman, chairman of the Soviet Jewish Committee of the Greater Philadelphia Board of Rabbis. Theodore R. Mann, president of the JCRC read a letter that had been smuggled out of the Soviet Union and delivered to the JCRC last week. The letter from a Mr. E. Spikovsky of Kharkov, appealed to the United Nations for assistance in obtaining permission for Mr. Spikovsky to emigrate from the Soviet Union to Israel. The letter will be turned over to Mrs. Rita Hauser, the American representative to the UN Commission on Human Rights for submission to the UN later this week. Excerpts from letters by other Soviet Jews seeking assistance to emigrate to Israel were also read at the rally.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
