More than 600 Jews and non-Jews staged an ecumenical rally yesterday to protest the resumption of the trials against Jews in the Soviet Union. This was the first time in the city’s history that Jews and Christians joined forces in a common cause. The meeting, which was sponsored by all segments of the Jewish community and the Ecumenical Council, sent a telegram to Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet Communist Party secretary, which denounced the “brutal attempt to intimidate Jews.” The telegram included a demand for the immediate release “of unjustly persecuted Jews in Russia, including Jews awaiting trial, serving prison sentences for crimes of not only being a Jew but acting like one.” It also called on Soviet authorities “to guarantee the right of emigration.” Mayor James N. Corbett Jr. proclaimed yesterday “Russian Jewry Day” in the city. Sister Marguerite, president of the Ecumenical Council, told the gathering: “Christians have concern for all of you. There are none who are so blind that they cannot see that everyone has the right to freedom, cultural expression and the right to worship in their own way. We pray that the Russians give these rights to the Jews.” Gunther Lawrence, author of the recent study on the plight of Soviet Jewry, “Three Million More?”, told the meeting that non-violent but militant pressure must be maintained to aid the Soviet Jews. He condemned the violent tactics of the Jewish Defense League as inimical to the cause of Soviet Jewry.
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.
