Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 

accessible at www.djnfoundation.org

78 | DECEMBER 8 • 2022 

Freedom Sunday
L

ast year, JN writer Ashley 
Zlatopolsky wrote two beautiful 
retrospectives about the histor-
ic arrival of Soviet Jews in Detroit and 
members of our local Jewish community 
who were seriously involved in the effort 
to make this happen (March 11 and Sept. 
16, 2021, JN). As I reread Ashley’s work 
and thought about the current situation 
for the Jewish community 
in Ukraine and Russia, I was 
reminded of an anniversary. 
Thirty-five years ago, on 
Dec. 6, 1987, a key event was 
held in Washington. D.C., a 
rally that demonstrated mas-
sive American support for 
the release of Jews from the 
Soviet Union [now Russia].
As reported by the JN, “Freedom Sunday 
for Soviet Jews was the largest Jewish rally 
ever held in Washington.” It drew an esti-
mated 250,000 American Jews and their 
supporters to the National Mall that day. 
Their goal was to increase the pressure on 
the Soviet Union to allow Jews to practice 
their religion without restrictions, as well 
as allow them to freely immigrate to Israel, 
the United States or elsewhere.
Along with the huge crowd, the rally 
featured several prominent speakers. 
First and foremost, renowned “refuse-
nik” Natan Sharansky stated that “No 
missiles and tanks, no camps and prisons 
can extinguish the candle of freedom.” 
Furthermore, Sharansky declared, “If 
Soviet Jews are not free, then all Jews are 
not free.” 
Then U.S. Vice President George 
H.W. Bush made a simple but emotion-
al plea directly to the president of the 
Soviet Union [Mikhail Gorbachev]: “Mr. 
Gorbachev: Let these people go!” 
The rally was also on the eve of a histor-
ic summit between U.S. President Ronald 
Reagan and Gorbachev at the White 
House. One more step on the path leading 
to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The JN provided extensive coverage 
of Freedom Sunday in its Dec. 11, 1987, 
issue. JN Editor Gary Rosenblatt’s report 
was titled “Let My People Go!” Rosenblatt 
wrote that the rally was the “culmination 
of 15 years’ effort on the part of American 
Jewry on behalf of their Soviet brethren,” 
and that 1,000 Michiganders were at the 
rally. 
Freedom Sunday was an import-
ant catalyst toward the release of 
Soviet Jews in the early 1990s. On 
its 25th anniversary, the rally still 
resonated within Detroit’s Jewish 
community. For a fine synopsis 
about the impact of Freedom 
Sunday see the essay “Freedom 
Sunday Rewind” by former JN 
Editor Robert Sklar (May 12, 2016, 
JN). Sklar’s article included poignant 
memories from local community 
leader Conrad Giles and Rabbi 
Arianna Gordon, who was a 
7-year-old when she accompanied 
her father to the Washington rally. 
Like Rabbi Gordon, director of the 
Jewish Democratic Council of America, 
Halie Soifer, was 9 when her father took 
her to Freedom Sunday (March 21, 2019).
The theme for Jewish Family Service’s 
annual meeting on May 17, 2016, was 
“Mission Possible” (March 24, 2016, 
JN). It was billed as an opportunity to 
“relive a modern-day miracle,” that is, 
“Operation Exodus” or the arrival of over 
a million Soviet Jewish immigrants, 1990-
1994. Attendees spent an evening with 
internationally famous refusenik Natan 
Sharansky.
So, as we contemplate the current state 
of the Jewish communities in Ukraine and 
Russia, or wherever they are in distress, it’s 
good to note that Michiganders have made 
and still make a difference. 

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation 
archives, available for free at www.djnfoundation.
org.

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

