Twenty-one Soviet Jewish Prisoners of Conscience were remembered by name and photograph in a Succoth celebration in Lafayette Park opposite the White House and Blair House yesterday. In commemorating the festival, the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington erected a temporary succah on the lawn within sight of both the Presidential residence and the Presidential guest house where Egyptians, Americans and Israelis are seeking to arrange an Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.
A score of children danced and sang Hebrew songs and carried photos of the prisoners within the succah. Clergymen of the three major faiths addressed an audience of several hundred persons. Msgr. Ralph E. Kuehner of Our Lady of Victory Church, quoted from the declaration of the last Brussels Conference on Soviet Jewry that called on Christians to join in seeking the release of Jews who wish to leave the Soviet Union.
The Rev. John Steinbruck of Luther Place Memorial Church, said, “If the religious community can achieve solidarity there’s no doubt the Abraham community could become the mechanism for liberation in our time.” Rabbi Stepen Listfield of Adas Israel Congregation, Phyllis Frank, the Council’s president and Norman Goldstein, chairman of the Council’s Committee on Soviet Jewry, were among other participants in the ceremony.
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