Rally Held Protesting Plight of Soviet Jews, Murder of 24 Artists Under Stalin Regime

A combined rally, protesting the Soviet Union’s treatment of its Jews, and memorial service for 24 Soviet Jewish writers, poets, artists and actors who were murdered during the Stalin regime was held in the city’s Diamond Center today by the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. Nine hundred signatures were added to the 80,000 already gathered on petitions to be presented to the United Nations, the White House and the Soviet Embassy at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept. 16, Jacob Birnbaum, national director of SSSJ told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The petitions request UN help in preventing the forthcoming trial of Soviet Jews. He said 3,000 persons had stopped to listen to portions of the two-hour rally that was addressed by Representative Richard L. Ottinger. Democrat of New York, former Bronx Borough President Herman Badillo and Adam Walinsky, Democrat candidate for New York State Attorney General in the November election. Sidney Davidoff, administrative assistant to Mayor John V. Lindsay represented Senator Charles E. Goodell, New York Republican, who was in Washington. A letter was read from two Leningrad Jews, warning of forthcoming trials which would attempt to link Jews throughout the USSR with the alleged attempt to hijack a plane from Leningrad.