Address at Simchat Torah Celebration for Soviet Jewry (1969)

/ Address at Simchat Torah Celebration fo…

Speech

October 2, 1969

Address at Simchat Torah Celebration for Soviet Jewry (1969)

Soviet Jewry Reflections on the Shoah

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Digest of Statement by Rabbi Norman Lamm (1969)

We are here, representing all of New York Jewry, to express three central themes: sorrow, solidarity, and protest. Our sorrow concerns the condition of three million Soviet Jews who have had to bear fifty years of Communist repression, and cultural and religious deprivation. We have gathered too to demonstrate our solidarity with young Russian Jews who, after three generations of enforced alienation, have rediscovered their Jewish identities and on Simchat Torah defiantly express it by singing and dancing in front of syna- gogues in the major Russian cities. We are doing so here three days in advance, resolving that we will not forget them — not until they are free.We are also here to protest -- because we are Jews and because of our commitment to human dignity. We protest the condition of Russian Jews as the chief victims of residual Stalin- ism. We protest the discrimination against Jews in denying them cultural and religious rights granted to other minorities.-- a denial which violates the Soviet Constitution. We demand that the right granted by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — the right to leave any country --be given to Russian Jews.Let them live -- or let them leave.

Speech

Speech by Mayor John V. Lindsay - Soviet Jewry Protest (1969)

Rabbi Lamm, Mr. Riseman, Senator Goldin, Theodore Bikel, Ladies and Gentlemen: Tonight should be a time of celebration – for the Jewish community of New York, and of the world. Yet we meet tonight in sorrow – and we meet in anger, too.Tonight we should be gathering to mark our rejoicing over the Laws of God, enriched by the work of man. Yet we gather here to speak out – to speak against a continuing, unjustifiable insidious desecration of one of the supreme laws of the spirit – the right to worship our God by the dictates of our conscience.Tonight, even as we meet, thousands of Jews will gather in the streets of Moscow -- to worship, to sing, to express their own sense of joy. We gather in freedom - they do not. For the Soviet Union has made clear that it does not intend to permit its Jewish community to nurture its traditions and to survive. And thus these brave men and women celebrate their faith at great risk. We are here tonight to let them know that we stand with them in the streets of Moscow -- and we stand with them in their struggle to remain free in spirit.We know the burden they bear. Their cultural heritage is threatened by official sanction and hidden intimidation -- they are effectively forbidden to develop schools, federations, journals, the whole range of tools for the preservation of a rich cultural heritage -- a heritage which lives and thrives today in every part of this city and this country. We know, too, that by heavy-handed persecution of Jewish writers and thinkers, the Soviet State has raised an unmistakable warning - a warning which says that to remain a free Jew in Russia is to put your career and your freedom in jeopardy.The courage of the Soviet Union’s Jewish community, in the face of this threat of cultural genocide, is inspiring. They have raised their voices in protest; they have publicly asked for their rights; and tonight, in celebration of the Law of God and man, they will in effect be saying "no" to the threat of state-sanctione…

Correspondence

Letter to R. Chaim Segal about Mesivta of Crown Heights Hosting Student Speaker Who Visited Soviet Jews (1969)

Dear Rabbi Segal: A number of students just returned from the Soviet Union report remarkable experiences during last month's festivals. The sum total of their testimony suggests the dramatic conclusion that during the past year or so one of the most decisive expansions of Jewish feeling in history has taken place among young Soviet Jews. Many are making great sacrifices to affirm their Jewishness and to express their protest to the world.I would urge that this extraordinary phenomenon be communicated as soon as possible to your students, perhaps at a School Assembly. Among the eyewitnesses, there is one — a Brooklyn Yeshiva graduate — who is a particularly effective speaker. Listening to him will be a significant experience for staff and students alike.I am sure you will agree that such an encounter will inspire the students with renewed enthusiasm and commitment to the cause. Because the struggle is a long and complicated one, there is a special need to overcome an understandable weariness.For further details, please call Jacob Birnbaum, National Director of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, at 799-8900 any afternoon. Arrangements should be made at an early time as the young man in question is being rapidly booked.Sincerely yours,RABBI NORMAN LAM