The American Conference on Soviet Jewry related today that 1000 Soviet Jews recently defied Soviet police to conduct a memorial observance at the mass grave of 30,000 Jews slaughtered by the Nazis in 1942 in Rumboli Forest on the outskirts of Riga, Latvia. According to the report, this latest demonstration of the heroic determination of Soviet Jews to assert their Jewishness despite official harassment was given by mourners gathered Nov. 29, on the 28th anniversary of the deaths of the holocaust victims. A plainclothesman of the feared KGB, the Soviet secret police, attempted to silence a speaker at the gathering. The plainclothesman withdrew when the crowd protested. Uniformed police then moved through the throng, taking photographs. Evidence of participation in demonstrations disapproved by the authorities has often been used as a basis for dismissal of individuals from jobs or other punishment in the USSR. But the mourners refused to be intimidated and none left. The incident was related here by the AJCSJ on the eve of a Community Leadership Alert rally scheduled for tomorrow at Hunter College to protest the Soviet harassment of Jews and demand freedom for the Jews being held for trial.
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.
