Thousands Participate in Rallies in Four Cities Protesting Plight of Soviet Jews

Rallies protesting the plight of Soviet Jewry were held in Denver, Boston, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles over the weekend. In Denver a Catholic nun joined 32 students and adults Sunday for a three-day fast on the steps of the Capitol Building to protest the recent arrests of nine Leningrad Jews. Sister Patricia Parker, a graduate student in education at Colorado State College at Greeley, decided to join the fasters after reading about them in the Denver Post. The fast was begun on Sunday by 23 students and faculty members of the University of Colorado who decided on a “Fast For Freedom” to bring attention to the plight of the 3 million Jews in the Soviet Union. They were soon joined by nine members of The United Family, a small Protestant religious group. The “Fast For Freedom” was sponsored by the Denver Committee of Concern for Soviet Jewry, whose co-chairmen, Rabbi Raymond Zwerin and Mrs. Harry Hoffman, announced that an additional 30 persons would fast for one or two days. More than 400 persons attended the opening ceremonies in downtown Denver, which included a service commemorating the 18th anniversary of the murder of 24 Yiddish writers and intellectuals in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s regime. The fast was observed with daily teach-ins by university faculty members and Tisha b’Av religious services.

Signatures were gathered on a “statement of concern” to be presented to Soviet authorities on behalf of “the 3 million Jews trapped in a growing tide of hatred and anti-Semitism,” Mrs. Hoffman said. She said tens of thousands of Jews who have applied for exit visas are “being hunted, arrested, imprisoned on trumped up charges, have their jobs taken away, homes illegally searched and are constantly harassed–all because they are courageous enough to stand up publicly and proclaim to the world that they are Jews, they are proud to be Jews, and that they want to live as Jews.” In Boston, Dr. Robert F. Drinan, former dean of the Boston College Law School and chairman of the Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, was the keynote speaker Sunday at a rally sponsored by the New England Region of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry in cooperation with the New England Region of the American Jewish Committee. The rally was held in the Boston Common and featured a “guerrilla theatre” performance of the trial of Boris Kochubiyevsky, a Ukrainian Jew who was imprisoned for “slander” against the Soviet state. Jerry Goodman, European Affairs specialist of the AJ Committee told the rally: “Three million Jews in Russia are facing cultural genocide today. They are denied freedom of worship and the right to purchase religious articles and literature. In the past 14 years, 390 synagogues have been shut down. As part of the systematic Soviet attempt to extinguish Jewish pride and identity, Jews are not allowed to give their children any Jewish education. Applications for visas are met with loss of jobs, police harassment and possible imprisonment.”

In Washington, a fast was sponsored by the Jewish Community Council of Washington and the Washington Board of Rabbis. Several thousand persons took part in religious ceremonies and at a conference of Soviet Jewry held at B’nai Israel Congregation Monday and today. In Los Angeles, about 1,000 persons demonstrated on behalf of Soviet Jewry Friday night in front of the Shrine Auditorium, where the famed Moiseyev Ballet Company opened a one-week engagement. Although police were out in force, there were no incidents. According to Zev Yaroslavsky and Si Frumkin, chairmen of the Southern California Council for Soviet Jews, the demonstrators protesting the treatment of Jews in the USSR had the support of “many non-Jewish performers in the ballet company itself.” Mr. Yaroslavsky and Mr. Frumkin replied to apparent criticism from local religious elements for holding a demonstration on the Sabbath. “This type of activity is the only alternative we have if we intend to save Soviet Jews,” they said. “Prayers are fine when there are no other alternatives, but it is shameful to be praying at the same moment when the community has an opportunity to make a direct impact on the Soviet Union. Prayers did not save the six million, although there were those who advocated such activity rather than protest during the 1940s.”