About 30 Jewish students from New York area campuses staged a daylong fast today at the Isaiah Wall opposite the United Nations building to protest the treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union and the refusal of Soviet authorities to permit those who wished to emigrate to Israel to do so. The 12-hour fast was organized by the University Community for Soviet Jewry and the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. They called on the UN to take immediate steps to alleviate the plight of Soviet Jews and to censure the-Soviet Union for violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which guarantees freedom of emigration.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of the Lincoln Square Synagogue told the 250 demonstrators and bystanders that he had just returned from the Soviet Union where Jews had told him that new “show trials” were being prepared by Soviet officials. He said also he was told that 24 Jews had been arrested in recent months without charges being filed against them. He said also that Soviet Jews want fellow-Jews abroad to “make noise” about their plight. Other speakers were Sen. Charles Goodell, a candidate for re-election, and Barry Farber, who is running for Congress on the Republican-Liberal ticket. Sen. Goodell said he was working behind the scenes for Soviet Jewry, declaring “what these people are doing in the street today, I am doing behind the scenes.” He mentioned measures and contacts but did not elaborate. Farber charged that peace marchers who protest injustice everywhere but are silent about Soviet Jews were “hypocrites.”
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.
