Jews of Russia, Israel Linked on Simhat Tora
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
the beaches to accommodate the
visitors.
Prayers for rain were offered in
the holiday tradition, and the rains
came on schedule ending Israel's
dry period that lasts from May
to October. Thunder claps and a
few large warm drops scattered
Tora marchers in Jerusalem. It
was a brief shower, but the skies
threatened a downpour, and most
paraders ran for shelter.
Participants in the "Hakafot" in
Jerusalem included Mayor Teddy
Kollek and Sir Isaac Wolfson of
Great Britain. The scroll bearers
were led in the first round by
Chief Rabbis Isser Untermann and
Itzhak Nissim. They were joined
by Eliabu Katz, the rabbi of Brati-
slava, Czechoslovakia, who is visit-
ing here. Two cabinet ministers of
the Religious Party, Moshe Sha-
piro and Zerach Wahrhaftig, also
marched.
During the day, marchers from
various Jerusalem synagogues car-
ried the Tora scrolls to the West
Wall. Thousands of out-of-towners
visiting the city mingled with
Hasidim, Yemenites and North
African Jews dancing in the
streets.
In Tel Aviv, an estimated 30,000
people watched a_parade of Jews
LONDON—About 12,000 Russian
Jews, mostly young people, danced
and sang in front of Moscow's
Choral Synagogue Tuesday night
in celebration of the Simhat Tora
holiday, it was reported here from
Moscow.
They danced the hora, a tradi-
tional folk dance of Israel, while
inside the synagogue an overflow
crowd estimated at 2,000 sang in
Hebrew "Hava Neranenu" ("Let
Us Rejoice") to the clapping of
hands.
Simhat Tora is one of the few
occasions that Soviet authorities
permit Jews to celebrate in the
streets of the capital. The practice
dates from the Khrushchev period.
In the latter years of the Stalin
regime, it was forbidden.
(The Bnai Brith Youth Organi-
zation published an advertisement
in the New York Times Tuesday
urging Americans "of all creeds
and colors" to demand full reli-
gious and cultural freedom for
Soviet Jewry. The advertisement
noted that while Jews are per-
mitted to dance in Moscow on
Simhat Tora, "Jewish writers,
actors and intellectuals have been
purged, Jewish newspapers, thea-
ters, seminaries and Hebrew book
publishing houses have been closed
down." It said, further, that "the
world's silence during the years
of Hitlerism facilitated the physi-
cal destruction of 6,000,000 Euro-
pean Jews. Now 3,000,000 survivors
face spiritual extinction.")
Over 3,000 young American
Jews gathered on the Central
Park Mall at noon Sunday to
begin Simhat Tora celebrations
several hours in advance of the
holiday.
The gathering, and similar ones
in 27 other cities of the United
States and Canada, was a demon-
stration of solidarity with the Jews
of Soviet Russia. They were organ-
ized by the American Jewish Con-
ference on Soviet Jewry.
The early Simhat Tora celebra-
tions also launched a nationwide
drive for 1,000,000 signatures on a
petition to U Thant, secretary-
general of the United Nations, to
urge the Soviet Union "to fulfill the
promise of individual dignity and
liberty inherent in its own Consti-
tution and by its signature on the
Universal Declaration of Human
Rights."
The New York and Washington
rallies heard statements from
Presidential candidates Hubert H.
Humphrey and Richard M. Nixon.
Both rallies were taped by the
Voice of America for broadcasting
to Moscow. In addition, Kol Israel,
the Israel state radio,, taped the
New York rally and will broadcast
parts of it to Russia from Israel.
According to an informed source,
more than a dozen American Jew-
ish youths, many from religious
groups, flew to Moscow to be with
Russian Jews at the Simhat Tora
celebration there, and would tell
them of the solidarity displays in
the West.
The petition addressed to Thant
points out that Premier Alexei
Kosygin's 1966 promise to let Soviet
Jews be reunited with their fami-
lies abroad has not been carried
out; that Jews in Russia are not
permitted to publish devotional'
literature or manufacture religious
articles; that their cultural, educa-
tional and communal institutions
have been shut down; and that
Jews seeking a higher education in
the Soviet Union are restricted by
a rigid quota system.
Meanwhile, a carnival atmos-
phere pervaded most of Israel as
tens of thousands of persons
paraded or danced in the streets
or joined in the traditional
"Hakafot"—the march with the
Tora scrolls — that ended the
Simhat Tora holiday. Seaside
resorts were packed with Israeli
families taking advantage of the
last holiday weekend of autumn.
An estimated 20,000 persons con-
verged on the resort town of
Eilat on the Red Sea, which has
only about 1,000 hotel beds.
Rows of tents were set up along
from various countries wearing
their traditional costumes and
carrying ornamented Tora scrolls
behind brass bands. Prime Min-
ister Levi Eshkol, addressing a
throng, referred to Israel as a
melting pot for all the "tribes of
Israel." At an army camp, Israel's
chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Chaim
Bar Lev, joined in the traditional
dancing along with his father and
chief chaplain, Gen. Shlomo Goren,
Goren.
Child Study Center
Has Residential Section
Friday, October 18,, 1968-19
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Sirhan Defense Is Expected to Challenge Jewish
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