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and direct them to the Soviet
government," said co-
coordinator Barry Freed-
man, a Brandeis junior.
"None of this can happen
with Ethiopia . . . The only
recourse for students is to go
to their own government."
Activists said that peti-
tions from American Jews to
the Ethiopian government
could cause a backlash
against the Jews of Ethiopia.
To initiate the lobbying
effort, 'students at Brandeis
University in Waltham,
Mass., sent information
packets to more than 150
Hillel groups around the
nation and invited them to
Washington.
The resulting group repre-
sented 15 colleges, including
several students each from
the University of Georgia,
Yeshiva University and
Harvard University. Mich-
igan State University sent a
representative.
The invitations also
brought out non-Jewish
students.
David Marshall, a black
freshman at Princeton Uni-
versity, had met Ethiopian
Jews when he spent a year
in Israel on a kibbutz intern-
ship program founded by
Congressman Mickey
Leland.
The Texas congressman,
chairman of the Select
Committee on Hunger, died
when his plane crashed in
August, 1989, during a mis-
sion to Ethiopia. Leland had
been working for the relase
of Ethiopian Jews.
Back at Princeton, Mar-
shall started an Ethiopian
Jewry advocacy group, using
Leland as a model for ac-
tivism.
"I know how heavily he
was involved in this cause,
so I wanted to become in-
volved also," Marshall said
last week in Washington.
Freedman said the
students distributed infor-
mation packets to 500 of the
535 members of Congress.
Those legislators or aides
who met with students ex-
pressed a conviction to put
the Ethiopian Jewry issue
on their agendas, Freedman
said.
Sen. Donald Riegle (D-
Mich.) told students visiting
his office that he joined the
Congressional Caucus on E-
thiopian Jewry three weeks
ago after receiving about a
dozen letters.
That amazed Fred Dobb, a
Brandeis senior from West
Bloomfield, Mich., who said
he was surprised that
"something as simple as a
dozen letters can get some-
thing so important done."
Jennifer Epstein of
Southfield, who represented
Michigan State, said
students at MSU's Hillel
Center had sent cards to
Riegle, urging his participa-
tion.
As a result of the Wash-
ington meeting, Freedman
said he expected more ad-
vocacy groups for Ethiopian
Jews to be established on
college campuses.
"The Jewish community is
overwhelmed with Soviet
Jewry," said Gordon of the
North American Conference
"This year in
Jerusalem.
Because next year
may be too late."
a T-shirt slogan
on Ethiopian Jewry. "And
God forbid they should take
one ounce of energy away
from that. But this is so im-
mediate. There is enough
energy in the Jewish com-
munity for Ethiopian Jews
also."
In a briefing before the
lobbying on Capitol Hill,
Rabbi Albert Axelrad, direc-
tor of Brandeis University
Hillel, reminded students
that "saving Ethiopian Jews
falls under the mitzvah of
`Pidyon Shivuyim' or
redeeming the captive."
"This is a mitzvah," Rabbi
Axelrad said. "It is not vol-
untary. It is our duty."
MSU's Epstein was confi-
dent there would be no need
for another student lobby
since the students seem so
dedicated. "When we say
`Next year in Jerusalem' for
the Jews in Ethiopia this
Passover, it will be true." El
Letter Cites
PLO Magazine
Los Angeles (JTA) — Two
articles in an official maga-
zine of the Palestine Libera-
tion Organization describe
the Holocaust as "the lie of
the 20th century," which
contradicts PLO chief Yasir
Arafat's recent claims of
moderation, officials of the
Simon Wiesenthal Center
have said in a letter to Sec-
retary of State James Baker.
The letter requests that
the United States "officially
protest and raise this matter
during the next dialogue
with the PLO."
While other Arab sources
have tried to demean the
Holocaust in the past, "this
is the first time, to our
knowledge, that the PLO
has done so," said Rabbi Ab-
raham Cooper.