Home Home / Letter to Morris Sacks about Serving as…

Correspondence

Sep. 8, 1967

Letter to Morris Sacks about Serving as Patron of Council of Youth for Soviet Jewry (1967)

Soviet Jewry
View The Text

This content is currently available in its original PDF format. As we expand the library, we plan to add a text version as well.

RELATED CONTENT

Correspondence

Letter from Morris Brafman about Soviet Jewry Memorandum (1967)

Dear and Esteemed Friend: I have asked the office of the American League for Russian Jews to mail you a copy of the Memorandum that we presented to the 25 National Organizations in the American Conference for Russian Jews. Because of your genuine concern for the Jews in Russia, and the leading position you occupy in the effort to help them, I wanted you to be informed about our proposal. I have given my promise to the Chairman of the Conference, Rabbi Israel Miller, to entrust this Memorandum only to the spokesmen of the 25 National Organizations, and to a select group of dedicated friends.I would, therefore, greatly appreciate it if nothing is written about it in any newspaper in order to give the 25 organizations a fair chance to consider it and make their decisions.I know I can count on your discretion, and remain,Respectfully yours,Morris BrafmanMB;RCSpecial Delivery
Soviet Jewry

Correspondence

Letter from R. Lamm and Dr. Wyschogrod to Friends of The Center for Russian Jewry (1967)

Dear Friend, The N. Y. Times recently had a notice about the trial of Yosif Dolnik in Moscow. Past experience has shown that a trial of this nature is symptomatic of a period of troubles for Soviet Jewry. Evidence to this effect has been coming in for some time. Several responses to the Soviet Jewry tragedy are possible: Arousing community opinion at the local level as suggested in the enclosed material and the dispatch of packages. Above all, it has now been proven beyond doubt that our public expression of concern, leading to a major mobilization of public opinion throughout the nation is the foundation for a successful action for Soviet Jewry.One important means to this end is the publication of large ads in the N. Y. Times and Washington Post. The texts are now being prepared for insertion during Passover. Though time is indeed short, we are turning to you for immediate and generous financial assistance – within the next ten days, if at all possible. Checks should be made out to the Center For Russian Jewry and the names of signatories appended.(Rabbi) Norman Lamm(Professor) Michael Wyschogrod
Soviet Jewry

Correspondence

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 …
Soviet Jewry