October 16, 1970
Huge Rally for Soviet Jewry Sunday
Thousands of persons in the Bay Area are expected at the fourth annual mass rally for Soviet Jewry at the George Washington High School athletic field.
One of the highlights of the rally will be the reading of an appeal for help from a young Soviet Jew. The appeal is in a letter written to Israel’s President Zalman Shazar.
The letter was written by Isaak Zhinitsky, 23-year-old resident of Minsk.
In part it says:
“I am a young Jew living in the Soviet Union, a Jew who does not know what a Jewish school is, who has never read about his people in any of the Soviet history books, a Jew who was never acquainted with the origin of Jewish culture but who realizes very well his affiliation with the Jewish people and his country — the state of Israel.
“On July 21, 1969, I submitted a declaration about my desire to join my relatives, my people, in the state of Israel. By an irony of fate, a man, after surmounting innumerable difficulties and obstacles, put his foot on the Moon on the same day.
“I, a Jew, who desires to put his foot on the soil of his Jewish homeland, have been unable this day to realize my legitimate desire though the fault of the Soviet authorities putting obstacles in my way.
“On August 25, 1969, they refused without giving a reason. After that I was expelled from the Belorussian Polytechnical Institute where I was a student.”
October 5, 1990
German Jews don’t celebrate unity
BERLIN — In Oestkirchen, a small town outside of Bonn, West Germany, Rachel Bondy’s class proudly planted a tree to mark unification. But like most German Jews, the 14-year-old could not pour her heart into it.
“As a Jew,” she said, “there is nothing to celebrate.”
Though she is too young to remember World War II, Bondy’s skepticism was heartfelt — and typical. With few exceptions, on unification day Wednesday, Jews stayed tucked away in their homes, or left Germany altogether, while millions of their joyous compatriots in cities and towns across the country threw the biggest party modern Germany has seen.
Even though it was a national holiday, hotelier Benjamin Urbach worked throughout the day. Jewish psychologist Max Teicher left Munich and went to Switzerland “because I can’t share the happiness of my German friends, and I can’t explain these feelings to them. They would never understand.”
One Jewish leader prayed for rain.
Hanover Rabbi Henry Brandt joined with other clergy and their constituents at a church in Bonn for an interdenominational service. While he was reminding Germans not to forget the Holocaust, a small group of neo-Nazis was screaming hate slogans outside until its members were arrested.
“It’s not Germany we have to fear, it’s Germans,” Brandt said later.
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