American Jews are preparing to greet Soviet Communist party First Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev with demonstrations in Washington, D.C., at the Western White House at San Clemente, California, New York and Long Island. The Soviet leader is expected to arrive in the United States Saturday for talks with President Nixon.
Official sources said that it has not yet been decided whether Brezhnev will visit New York City. State Department officials are reportedly reluctant to risk massive demonstrations on behalf of Soviet Jewry with Brezhnev present on the scene.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations reported today that its constituent member agencies were mobilizing wide-spread participation in the National Freedom Assembly for Soviet Jews to be held on the Ellipse in Washington next Sunday and in Los Angeles the following day. Thirty constituent organizations have already responded to the call. The Freedom Assembly in Washington is under the joint auspices of the Presidents Conference and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.
The Washington. D.C. procession is expected to be led by Senators, Congressmen, Christian and Jewish leaders, labor leaders as well as people from the arts and sciences, according to the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.
DEMONSTRATION AT WESTERN WHITE HOUSE
The “greeting Brezhnev” activities at San Clemente will begin with a mass participation Candlelight Caravan on June 20. Hundreds of cars are expected to converge on the Western White House with the participants walking, candles in their hands, to the gates of the President’s residence.
Si Frumkin, chairman of the Southern California Council for Soviet Jews, said in Los Angeles: “Brezhnev represents a country that has declared war on the Jewish people.” He added “we will not relax our pressure until free emigration is permitted to all those who wish to leave.”
On Long Island, a “Freedom Prayer Service” will be conducted on June 18, followed by a “Lights on for Freedom” procession to the Soviet residence at Glen Cove, L.I. Inez Weissman, president of the Long Island Committee for Soviet Jewry, said “since the Soviet residence is considered Russian soil, it is the appropriate site for demonstrating our anguish at the imprisonment and persecution of our Jewish brothers.”
No details about the plans for demonstrations in New York City are available. According to Jewish sources here these plans will be elaborated only after details of Mr. Brezhnev’s visit to the largest “Jewish city” in the world will be known.
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.
