Soviet Jewry Committee Launches Action Programs Including Ecumenical March for Freedom

The Long Island Committee for Soviet Jewry announced a series of new “action programs” for Russian Jews today. The group, which recently organized a mass motorcade and other demonstrations demanding rights for Jews in the USSR, said the future program includes two “Mother’s Marches for Freedom,” the first in the latter part of June and the second next September between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. According to Phillip Kates, president, the Soviet Jewry Committee will embark immediately on a massive petition campaign covering every community in Nassau County. The campaign will be under the chairmanship of Norman Feiden. Signatures will be solicited for a demand that the Soviet government “live up to the covenants incorporated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” that it permit observers at the trials of Jews in Russia and allow Jews who so wish to emigrate to Israel. Three Long Island Congressmen will deliver the petition personally to Secretary of State William P. Rogers, Kates said, The “Mother’s March” will be organized by Mrs. Inez Weisman. Kates said Jewish and non-Jewish mothers “from the grass roots of Nassau County” will join in a demonstration of support for Mrs. Rifka Aleksandrovich whose daughter, Ruth, received a 1-year sentence at the Riga trial last week. “The Mother’s March will be ecumenical in character and will be led by women leaders of the three major faiths,” Kates said.