obituaries Obituaries from page 84 Let My People Go! An American rally for Soviet Jewry on The unsung American hero of Soviet Jewry. Rabbi Avi Weiss M I JTA ay 1 will mark the 50th anniver- sary of the first Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ) demonstra- tion on behalf of Soviet Jews. The man who inspired the demonstration and became the father of the movement, Jacob Birnbaum, died April 9, 2014, at age 87. Birnbaum founded the SSSJ and, together with others including Glenn Richter, devel- oped the first national grassroots Soviet Jewry organization. But Birnbaum's legacy was much greater than any organizational affiliation. He was a heroic, legendary figure. In certain ways, his life paralleled the bibli- cal story of Jacob, who was described in the Passover story as a wanderer. Jacob Birnbaum was a wanderer, too. Born in Germany, his family escaped to England when he was a young boy. After World War II, he became involved in resettling the remnants of Eastern European Jewry. Having seen first- hand the horrors of the Shoah, he resolved to do all he could to save Soviet Jewry. So in the early 1960s, after coming to New York, he roamed — from room to room in Yeshiva University dormitories and in the halls of Columbia University — searching for students who would join him in a campaign to free the millions of Jews trapped behind the Iron Curtain. He was unyielding, uncom- promising, relentless, stubborn, steadfast and tenacious, persevering no matter the obstades. After wandering for years, the biblical Jacob had proclaimed, "I crossed the Jordan with my staff, and now I'm accompanied by two large camps:' This, too, was the story of Jacob Birnbaum. He had little when he arrived on these shores. But with his departure from this world, one could proclaim loudly and dearly that the camps he accompanied were large, numbering well over a million Soviet Jews. American Jews are part of his camp, too, as Birnbaum inspired us in the West to stand up for our brethren in the East and identify ourselves proudly and clearly as Jews. Birnbaum was the first to sound the alarm in America, having been inspired by Simchat Torah in 1983. his grandfather, Nathan Birnbaum, who is known to have coined the term "Zionism:' Jacob Birnbaum was the first to insist that we must cry out collectively to save Soviet Jewry; the first to lead the masses onto the streets in front of Soviet missions and embassies around the world; the first to understand the spiritual power of the movement and incor- porate it with religious slogans and songs. Indeed, Birnbaum was the first to recog- nize that not only did we have a responsibil- ity to direct our protests against the Soviet Union, but we also had the obligation to insist that our own U.S. government do more, much more, to press the Soviets to let our people go. JOIN US TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT DETROIT JEWISH HISTORY The Ira Kaufman Chapel is a proud member of a coalition committed to care for and preserve Detroit's historic B'nai David Cemetery - an important part of our community's history. Join us Sunday April 27th from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for a Community Cleanup at the cemetery on Detroit's East Side. For more information, contact David Goldman at (248) 686-9801 or david@migoldman.com THE IRA KAUFMAN CHAPEL 18325 W. Nine Mile Road Southfield, MI 48075 248.569.0020 • IraKaufman.com 86 iril 24 • 2014 JN Obituaries Sadly, Birnbaum often would be peremp- torily cut off by establishment figures who understood far less than he about the issue at hand. They eventually co-opted many of his original ideas but accorded him virtu- ally no credit for his pioneering work. In the early 1960s, Birnbaum asked Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach to compose a Soviet Jewry theme song. The words go back to the biblical narrative, when Joseph, after 22 years of separation from his father, Jacob, asks his brothers "ha'od avi chaff?" — "Is my father still alive?" And today, the Jews from the Soviet Union and their descendants can declare, yes, Jacob Birnbaum, our father, the father of the Soviet Jewry movement, lives on. On his shoulders we, his sons and daughters from the former Soviet Union and from the free world sing out as one, `Am Yisrael Chai," "the people of Israel live:' ❑ Avi Weiss is senior rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (N.Y.). He was national chairman of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, 1983-1991.