“We don’t need a conference, but a struggle." - Jacob Birnbaum, 1964
Video produced by Laura Bialis for the 2012 Russian American Jewish Experience Dinner
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"We called a meeting for April 27, 1964 at Columbia University. It was an incredible meeting; perhaps 200 students showed up. We discussed what should we do? We decided to demonstrate." - Glenn Richter, Co-founder of The Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, September 2005 interview
The Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry's (SSSJ or Triple S-J) meeting at Philosophy Hall did not set the May 1st date for protest in front of the Soviet UN mission by coincidence. Just as the words "student struggle" alluded to Marx's class struggle, their march took place on May Day - International Workers' Day.
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“Just as we, as human beings and as Jews, are conscious of the wrongs suffered by the Negro and we fight for his betterment, so must we come to feel in ourselves the silent, strangulated pain of so many of our Russian brethren.… We, who condemn silence and inaction during the Nazi Holocaust, dare we keep silent now?" - SSSJ leaflet: "College Student's Struggle for Soviet Jewry", distributed at Columbia University, April 1964
Interview with Glenn Richter in Refusenik
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References to Communism were the least of the Soviet Jewry Movement's array of creative rallying cries. Along with reminders of the Holocaust like "history shall not repeat" and "never again", the movement used biblical allusions such as in a 1970 march, when seven shofars were sounded seven times to recall the Battle of Jericho. "I am my brother's keeper," an allusion to Cain and Abel, and the phrase "let my people go" became key phrases of the movement.
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"Several of us got together and decided that if we can act on behalf of other people, why can’t we act on behalf of our own. At that time, there was very little information available, almost nothing. We just knew that Jews couldn't get matzah." - Glenn Richter, September 2005 interview
"Leader: Again Jews are faced with the threat of cultural genocide, and again are standing idly. We cannot wait for another Moses to lead Russian Jewry out of the house of bondage and oppression. The time has come for every person to raise his voice in indignation. The facts of the situation are clear; but the course of action remains to be taken. The American Jewish community must recognize that... All: WE ARE OUR BROTHER'S KEEPERS!!!!" - Youth Cantata written by the Beth Israel Temple High School Students, April 8, 1966, Cleveland. Published in "Hear the Cry of the Oppressed": A Handbook on Soviet Anti-Semitism.
Despite many successful protests, increased public awareness, and commotion the movement created, American Jews still had not risen in mass to support their Soviet counterpart. This would soon change.