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Correspondence

Dec. 10, 1969

Letter to David Geller about Christian Advocacy for Soviet Jewry (1969)

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Letter from Zev Wolfson about Political Advocacy for Soviet Jewry (1962)

Dear Norman, Please excuse my delayed reply to your two letters, for which I thank you. Frankly, I have been preoccupied with the matter I discussed with you, at the expense of all my other duties and interests. I am sending to you a photostatic copy of the memorandum which you already read and other enclosures by the same people, as well as a memorandum in Yiddish which is of particular importance. These papers, together with the Saturday Evening Post article, should give you the necessary background. I think you should particularly stress the point that religious observance should not be associated with political activity. This is of particular importance, as every kind of evil is being attributed to the synagogues in Russia. Specific requests should be made for all the necessary religious services and should be specified in detail.We should also bear in mind the memorandum to Senator Cooper. I am sending your suggested letters to the Department of Defense to Bernie Levmore, although I think he has already sent thank-you letters by himself.As to the letter to the rabbis in Indiana, I think it may be useful to wait until next week when Moe comes back, so that perhaps the letter may be signed jointly.I hope to talk to you after you prepare the suggested paper.Regards, ZWW
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Letter to Isadore Cohen Soliciting Support for Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (1969)

Dear Mr. Cohen: I am writing to you concerning a most unusual, little understood, and highly underappreciated group – the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. As one who has been associated with them directly from the very beginning, and especially recently in my capacity as Chairman of the New York Conference on Soviet Jewry, I have had occasion to judge the quality and extent of their contribution. They are the only full, exclusive group of young people devoted to the cause of Soviet Jewry, and they are involved in every single public project of importance that the Jewish community undertakes for this cause. Their value to all work for Russian Jews is inestimable – without their participation and leadership, very little of what the community does could succeed.Furthermore, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry has had a marvelous effect on the young people they attract. It is no secret that so very much of the best of our youth is being drained away from the Jewish community for radical and other non-Jewish (and sometimes anti-Jewish) causes. Somehow, we have failed to provide a healthy, Jewish outlet for the idealistic zeal of our youth, at the very time that youth throughout the country — and world — is gripped by a fervor for action and new ideals.The Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, however, has stepped into the breach and is answering this need in a splendid fashion. It was a remarkable and heart-warming sight when, on October 2nd (at the Simchat Torah Celebration for Soviet Jewry), some 2,000 young people, the greatest number of whom were brought down by or belonged to the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, sang and danced and listened and protested for 3–5 hours while drenched by uninterrupted rain, coming down in buckets. Surely such devotion and enthusiasm deserves recognition by the adult community.But despite such heroic contributions, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry lives in abject poverty. True, the students all give of themselves voluntarily …
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Letter to David Geller about Planning the Exodus March (1970)

Dear David: Welcome back. There's a great, great deal to talk about, but some things are more urgent than others. Hence, this note to bring you up on the most important matters that can brook no more delay than they've been subjected to so far. Frankly, the whole effort has suffered significantly from your absence. I only recently realized the disarray into which we have fallen. I most urgently recommend that you arrange to devote full time, or at least the major amount of your time, from now to April 26 on the Exodus March, lest the event become the debacle of the year.It will be necessary for you to get after every single committee to see what has been done, and what must yet be done. For instance, we still have no speaker. Also no program. Also no money...**Money:** At the March 26th meeting, I twisted some arms and got some people to promise to urge their organizations to help. Zivia Harris took minutes, and you ought to follow through on them at once. But even before that, it will be necessary for you to obtain the two different budgets drawn up by SSSJ on one side, and Bayer-Hill on the other. They look totally different, but that may be because they are bunched differently. This is first on the agenda.When you have set up the budget — both for the March and for regular annual operations — and, I presume, had it cleared with your coordinators such as Birnbaum, etc., please let me have it and I will immediately see Baum and Maslow of American Jewish Congress in an attempt to get from them more than the \$200 they gave so far. The \$2000 of B’nai B’rith depends on how successful I am with Congress, and they won't budge without a budget from us.**Program:** We're no place right now. We haven't got a single speaker. I don't know what you did on this front before you left, but no one has answered affirmatively. Birnbaum, Bayer, and Sheer are on this Committee — no one knows who else — and they must be contacted by you at once. Think about Paul O'Dwyer and Cardinal…
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