N tional Eternal Vigil Starts Sunday
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Thous-
ands of Jewish lay and rabbinic
leaders from more than 100 com-
munities throughout the country
will converge on Washington Sun-
day to launch a week-long National
Eternal Light Vigil for Soviet
Jewry.
The program is sponsored by the
American Jewish Conference on
Soviet Jewry, consisting of 24 na-
tional Jewish religious, civic and
Zionist organizations, representing
the major portion of American
Jewry.
The Conference was founded in
April 1964 at an emergency con-
Hebrew Corner
Rabbi Judah Halevi
Rabbi Judah Halevi was one of the
greatest poets of the Jewish people.
Judah Halevi ben Samuel was born
over 800 years ago in the city of Tudela
in Spain. From there he moved to the
south of Spain. In the south there lived
then great Torah authorities, as well as
Jewish poets. There they immediately
recognized Judah Halevi's great gifts in
poetry and the Hebrew language.
Zion plays the most important role in
the poems of Judoh Halevi. Particularly
famous is his poem: "Zion doest not
seek the welfare of thy captives" . . .
Since the time of the Bible there has
not been another poet who has spoken
with such great love for Eretz Israel
and. Jerusalem.
Judah Halevi wrote not only about
Zion. He composed religious poems on
God and the Jewish people, on the
world and the soul written with unusual
beauty. He also wrote "secular" poems:
words of friendship, love poems, wine,
songs and humourous poems etc. Judah
Halevi was a physician and earned his
livelihood through his profession.
His thoughts about the Jewish people,
Eretz Israel, and the exile gave him no
rest. He decided to emigrate to the
Holy Land. In the year 1140 he left for
Eretz Israel. On the ship he wrote about
the sea. He described the little boat in
which he journeyed and the great and
terrible ocean. When one reads these
poems one feels the smell of the sea
and the movement of the waves.
He reached Egypt—the last stage be-
fore Eretz Israel. Shortly after he reach-
ed Egypt he died (in 1141). He was not
granted to emigrate to Eretz Israel.
A legend relates that Judah Halevi
reached the gates of Jerusalem. He
shed tears on the holy soil and kissed
its stones. Then an Arab passed by him
on his horse and killed _him. Judah
Halevi was not granted to go up to
Zion but his spirit in his poetry lives
with us in the homeland.
Translation of Hebrew column. Pub-
lished by Brit Ivrit Olamit, Jerusalem.
vocation in Washington. At that
time, the Jewish groups planned
coordinated action to protest
against the religious and cultural
persecutions imposed upon 3,000,.
000 Jews in the Soviet Union.
Jewish leaders said here that the
Washington Vigil was the first
public action demonstration ever
held in the nation's capital un-
der the auspices of all of the
Jewish bodies.
The Vigil program will launch a
more direct involvment of national
Catholic, Protestant, labor, busi-
ness and other groups in dealing
with the Soviet Jewish question.
Many community leaders are corn-
ing to the Vigil with Catholic or
Protestant laymen or clergymen
as "interfaith teams." Local ma-
yors are appointing special dele-
gations of citizens to demonstrate
American solidarity in support of
this problem.
Participants in the program will
include: James Roosevelt, United
States representative on the United
Nations Economic and Social Coun-
cil; the Rev. John Cronin of the
National Catholic Welfare Confer-
ence; Bayard Rustin; Victor Reu-
ther; Bishop John Wesley Lord
(Methodist); Theodore Bikel;
Chaim Grade, Yiddish writer; Mi-
chael Harrington; and Rabbi Sey-
mour J. Cohen of Chicago, chair-
man of the steering committee of
the American Jewish Conference.
Climax of the demonstration, to
be held in LaFayette Park, will
be a dramatic ceremony kin-
dling the Eternal Light flame by
a young boy and girl from Wash-
ington, to symbolize the future
generation of Jews and the con-
tinuity of Jewish cultural and re-
ligious life in the USSR.
The Eternal Light will remain
standing in the park for the en-
tire week, protected by an honor
guard. On Sept. 24, a religious cere-
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mony will conclude the week-long
Vigil. Then the Eternal Light will
be sent to communities throughout
the country for local protest meet-
ings.
At the conclusion of the Washing-
ton ceremony, a shofar will sound
a "call to conscience." Then the
thousands of community represen-
tatives will be asked to proceed
in a silent processional past the
Soviet Embassy here. They will
have to walk 500 feet opposite the
Embassy, to comply with Wash-
ington demonstration regulations.
In Newark young Americans
for Freedom announced it had
dropped plans to participate in a
memorial service Sunday for
three Russian prisoners of war
who committed suicide in the
United States rather than to be
returned to the Soviet Union for
trial as war criminals.
John Kirwan, acting New Jersey
chairman of the YAF, and John La-
Mothe, YAF regional representa-
tive in Philadelphia, said the or-
ganization had been asked by a
Russian exile group to take part
in the memorial service.
The three Russians killed them-
selves in a POW stockade at Fort
Dix, N.J. in 1954. The memorial
service is scheduled for Finn's
Point National Cemetery in Fort
Mott State Park in New Jersey.
Plans are being made for partici-
pation of "American youth and pa-
triotic organizations and repesen-
tatives of peoples enslaved by
Communism," according to an an-
nouncement.
The two YAF officials said that
YAF agreed to join in the service
without knowing that the three
were "Axis soldiers, much less that
they had been captured by Ameri-
can forces on the Western front
in World War II." They added
that, when YAF learned these
facts, it officially withdrew from
the plans.
The YAF is generally considered
to consist mainly of young Repub-
licans to the right of the official
Young Republican Clubs. Kirwan
and LaMothe described their or-
ganization as a "pro-capitalist, and
anti-collectivist organization" of
New Trend Indicated in USSR
Attitudes on Anti-Semitism
• Continued from Page 1 •
stated:
"V.I. Lenin, the great creator of
the Communist Party, and founder
of the Soviet State, bequeathed to
of the Soviet State bequeath-
ed to our party the sacred
observance of the friendship of
the USSR peoples. He came down
wrathfully upon any manifestation
whatever of nationalism and, in
particular, he demanded an un-
tiring struggle against anti-Semit-
ism, this disgusting blowing-up of
the racial peculiarities and nation-
al hostility produced by the ex-
ploiter classes."
Pravda's editorial, which appear-
ed a week ago, was not the first
recent occasion upon which high-
est Soviet authorities admitted the
existence of anti-Semitism — a fact
always denied by the Kremlin —
it was pointed out here. It was
noted that, less than two months
ago, such a concession was made
by Alexei N. Kosygin, chairman of
the Soviet Council of Ministers. In
a speech in Riga, Kosygin had
referred to "the remnants of anti-
Semitism." Reported fully in Prav-
da on July 19, the Kosygin address,
including his reference to Soviet
anti-Semitism as a current phe-
nomenon, has been reprinted wide-
ly in many of the Communist
Party's regional and local news-
papers around the USSR.
But even the Kosygin speech
has not received the wide circula-
tion inside the USSR given to the
Pravda editorial. During the week
that has passed since Pravda car-
ried the editorial, the New York
Times reported from Moscow Satur-
day, it was "being reprinted in
provincial newspapers throughout
the country." "Such a wide dis-
tribution," the Times stated, "pre-
sumably prompted by central
directive, is ordinarily reserved for
major pronouncements on ideolog-
ical topics judged of particular
importance by Soviet Leaders."
The Pravda editorial, it was
emphasized, not only admitted the
existence of anti-Semitism in gen-
eral, but touched obliquely on
various specific phases of Soviet
Jewish life that have been subject-
ed to criticisms abroad. It referred
to the need for "economic rap-
prochement" among the many
ethnic groups in the Soviet Union,
thus pointing to economic dis-
criminations against Jewish and
other minority groups in the USSR.
It called for "mutual cultural ties
among the peoples of the USSR,"
contending that such links "are
growing stronger." The editorial
was interpreted as referring to the
situation of the Jewish minority
among others in the Soviet Union
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
48—Meltay, September 17, 1965
by stating:
"The program of the Commun-
ist Party of the Soviet Union
demands that we continue con-
sistently applying the principles
of internationalism in the field of
national relations; strengthen the
friendship of peoples as one of
the most important gains of social-
ism; conduct an uncompromising
struggle against manifestations
and survivals of any kind of na-
tionalism and chauvinism, against
trends of national narrow-minded-
ness and exclusiveness.
"Any manifestations of national
setting-apart are intolerable in the
training and employment of per-
sonnel of various nationalities in
the Soviet republics. Our party, a
party of consistent international-
ists, is guided unswervingly by the
Leninist ideas of friendship of peo-
ples. It is necessary to conduct the
education of the working people
even more energetically in the
spirit of Socialist internationalism,
equality and mutual respect. The
party organizations must demon-
strate by concrete examples the
great significance of the friend-
ship of Soviet peoples and the de-
velopment of their mutual aid.
"The task is to continue to fol-
low a course of comprehensive de-
velopment of the economy and
culture of all Soviet nations, a
course of their close cooperation
under the banner of Leninist
friendship of peoples," the editori-
al concluded.
The timing of the Pravda edi-
torial, coming on top of the recent
Kosygin admission that "rem-
nants" of anti-Semitism still exist
in the USSR, was a subject of
careful analysis here. There was
a belief that these manifestations
of official Soviet sensitivity to the
criticism abroad may be tied to
the fact that the most impressive
American Jewish reaction to Sov-
iet anti-Semitism ever undertaken
in this country will be broadcast
to the world from Washington,
where many thousands of Jews will
inaugurate the week-long Eternal
Light Vigil on behalf of Soviet
Jewry on Sunday.
It was emphasized that the
Voice of America has been broad-
casting news about the forthcom-
ing Vigil to listeners in the Soviet
Union, leading to the belief that
the USSR Communist Party was
trying, through the Pravda edi-
torial, to discount the Vigil's ef-
fects in advance among Soviet peo-
ples. The real test of the Kremlin's
intentions to reverse the course of
Soviet anti-Semitism, however,
must be judged by whatever con-
crete actions may follow in the
near future regarding the situa-
tion of Soviet Jewry, experts here
pointed out.
Related Stories on Page 9
young people which "is completely
Opposed to fascism in all forms."
New Interfaith Group Issues
Appeal on Jewish Rights in USSR
NEW YORK (JTA) — Prominent
Catholic, Protestant and Jewish
leaders joined forces in the estab-
lishment of an interfaith organi-
zation devoted to helping Soviet
Jewry regain full religious,freedom
throughout the Soviet Union.
To be known as the Appeal o'
Conscience Foundation, the neNX--r - \
group will seek to marshal the
moral resources of the three faiths
to overcome the denial of justice
to Russia's 3,000,000 Jews.
Among the officers elected to
head the new Foundation are Rabbi
Arthur Schneier of Cong. Zichron
Ephraim, New York, president; Dr.
Harold A. Bosley, minister of
Christ Church Methodist, vice pres-
ident; Rev. Thurston M. Davis, a
Jesuit and editor-in-chief of Amer-
ica, vice president; and former
Rep. Francis E. Dorn, of Brooklyn,
secretary-treasurer.
The Foundation is the outgrowth
of the "Appeal of Conscience" man-
ifesto announced earlier this year
over the signatures of many out-
standing American leaders in the-
ology, education, politics, writing
and related areas. Within the next
two weeks, it was said, a second
appeal will be issued, calling on
the Soviet government to cease
discriminating against its Jewish
citizens and to restore to them full
religious rights and guarantees.
In the statement issued Monday,
the leaders of the new Foundation
expressed the hope "that this inter-
faith movement will arouse the
moral conscience of the world in
behalf of Soviet Jewry and, there-
by, mobilize the sentiments of the
peoples of the universe for justice,
righteousness and liberty."
T h e continued restrictions
placed on Jewish religious acitvi-
ties in the Soviet Union also were
condemned by delegates to the
annual convention of the Associa-
tion of Orthodox Jewish Scien-
tists.
In Johannesburg, "deep con-
cern" for the plight of Soviet Jewry
was expressed by delegates at the
concluding session of the South
African Zionist Conference.
A resolution expressing "grave
apprehension in regard to the fu-
ture of Russion Jewry as a con-
scious segment of the Jewish
people," and calling on the Soviet
government to give "full recogni-
tion" to the basic rights of the Rus-
sian Jewish community, was un-
animously adopted. Representa-
tives from all parts of South Africa
attended the conference.
*
,
2 U.S. Tourists Sent Home
for Visiting Russian Towns
Off Limits to Foreigners ---
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
LONDON — Two Jewish touristic_
from the United States, Jacob
Sorokin and Jack Sigelman, were
expelled from the Soviet Union this
summer because they visited towns
barred to tourists, it was reported
here Tuesday from Moscow.
Soviet authorities charged that
the two Americans deliberately left
their tour groups which were un-
der close direction of Intourist, the
Soviet tourist agency, and tried to
visit towns near Minsk which are
out of bounds to foreigners.
Soviet Jewish Artist
Issues Auschwitz Album
LONDON (JTA) — A Soviet Jew-
ish artist, Zinovy Tblkachev, has
published an album of lithographs
called "Auschwitz," depicting the
horrors of that concentration camp,
according to information from Mos-
cow. The introduction to the book,
by a Soviet poet, Leonid Pervomai-
ski, called the prints "evidence for
the prosecution."
Another Moscow dispatch re-
ported that a monument to Sergei
Eisenstein, the noted Soviet Jewish
film director, has been unveiled
at Novodevichie Cemetery in the
Soviet capital.