Overcast skies and chilling winds set the mood for a Soviet Jewry solidarity hunger vigil and demonstration held on the East steps of the Capitol. The day-long hunger strike by 20 Washington-area rabbis and a demonstration by about 100 people were in solidarity with the 100 or more Soviet Jewish refuseniks who are now conducting hunger strikes in the Soviet Union to protest the KGB’s campaign of increased religious harrassment. Recently, the homes of prominent refuseniks were searched by Soviet officials who were looking for alleged drugs used for “Jewish rituals,” with Jewish ritual objects being ripped open and old women struck. Several Hebrew language and Jewish culture teachers have also been arrested on false charges and others threatened with arrest, according to the vigil co-sponsors, the Jewish Community Council (JCC) of Greater Washington and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.
Rev. Charles Bergstrom, executive director of the Office for Governmental Affairs of the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A., declared “we want to be as supportive and helpful as possible. May our voices be heard where changes can be made.”
FREEDOM LINKS PEOPLE
Rep. Jack Kemp (D. NY) declared “there is an inextricable link between the freedom of people throughout the world. Today you are giving a new meaning to the word ‘Solidarity’.” Kemp told the gathering “by standing here on the steps of the Capitol, not as Republicans or Democrats or people of one particular political philosophy, expressing our concern for men and women behind the Iron Curtain, and particularly those refuseniks being denied their basic human rights, we are expressing concern that was all too lacking in the 1930s and which many people have said, over and over again, including our President, must never happen again on the face of the earth.”
Kemp also said “there cannot be better relations between the United States and the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union begins to recognize their compaign of anti-Semitism and human rights is linked to all of the talks between they United States and the Soviet Union.
Dr. Eugene Fisher, executive director of the Secretariat of Catholic-Jewish Relations of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, stated that “anti-Semitism must be condemned in whatever forms and wherever and whenever it appears … we wish to speak out today together with other Christians and the Jewish community to protest attacks against the teachers of Hebrew now taking place in the Soviet Union”.
MORE DEMONSTRATIONS PLANNED
William Keyserling, Washington representative of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, told the gathering that later this month, ther will be 300 similar demonstrations throughout the United States. “These demonstrations will not only send a message to the Soviets, but also to the Jewish community in the Soviet Union,” Keyserling said.
Keyserling added that “these kinds of demonstrations continue to give hope and revive the spirit of those in the struggle.”
Other speakers included Mrs. Joan Kemp, wife of the Representative, co-chairwoman of the Congressional Wives for Soviet Jewry; State Sen. Howard Denis, Maryland Republican; Rabbi Philip Pohl, Washington Board of Rabbis Soviet Jewry chairman; and Helene Karpa, president of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, who served as moderator.
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.
