"Sowing"

1964

April. Major, national Jewish organizations meet at the Wilshire Hotel in Washington DC. They agree to launch an ad hoc American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry (AJCSJ), a coordinating body to advocate on behalf of Soviet Jews.

October 15. Nikita S. Khrushchev is removed from power, and Leonid Brezhnev assumes power as First Secretary of the Communist Party , the beginning of the 18-year "Brezhnev era."

April. The Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry is launched at Columbia University to enlist students at American colleges and universities in the advocacy effort.

October 28. Over 10,000 people attend a rally in New York's Madision Square Garden, one of the earliest public demonstrations for Soviet Jews.

1965

September. A crackdown against human rights activists and dissidents accelerates with the arrest of writers, Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel.

April. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach debuts his song, "Am Yisrael Hai," at a New York City demonstration. It becomes a rallying call for the Soviet Jewry Movement.

September 19-24. Thousands attend a National Eternal Light Vigil the first public demonstration in Washington, DC organized by the AJCSJ, with the participation of national and local leaders and activists. Some participants remain around the clock.

1966

Elie Wiesel's book, "The Jews of Silence" is published, highlighting his encounters with Soviet Jews and the silence of Western Jews in the face of their plight.

Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are placed on trial for "anti-Soviet propaganda" in the first of a series of similar show trials.

August. The Central Conference of American Rabbis, representing Reform rabbis, undertakes a 5-week East European mission to explore the status and condition of Jews, primarily in the Soviet Union. Most sources are closed to the delegation.

December 3. At a Paris press conference, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin declares that Jews could leave the Soviet Union, but only within the principle of family reunification.

1967

June 5-10. After near defeat, Israel's final victory in the Six Day War stirs great pride and strong national sentiment among many Jews in the Soviet Union. Applications to leave for Israel escalate, while Jewish activists begin meeting quietly, expecially in Moscow, Leningrad and Riga. In the wake of the war and the defeat of Moscow's Arab allies. diplomatic relations between Israel and the Soviet Union are again severed.

1967-8

Restrictions on Jewish enrollment in top universities expands, leading to career deprivations and stimulating additional Jewish applications to leave for Israel.

1968

May. House Minority Leader Gerald Ford (Rep., Michigan) introduces a general amendment in support of Soviet Jews. In the next 20 years scores of resolutions are introduced by Members of Congress focusing on individuals and on the general plight of Jews seeking to leave for Israel.

May. An appeal to the United Nations, from 18 Soviet Georgian Jewish families, calls for their right to leave the Soviet Union. It is released to the public by Israel, catching the attention of the media and advocates for Soviet Jews.

December. Boris Kochubievsky, charged with anti-Soviet slander, is arrested in Kiev, after campaigning to leave for Israel.

Launching of Academic Committee for Soviet Jews, soon to be headed by Professor Hans Morgenthau. The group focuses on Jewish scientists and academics rendered unemployed after applying to leave for Israel.

1969

May 16. Kochubievsky is sentenced to 3 years at hard labor, the first known sentencing of a Jewish activist seeking to leave for Israel. His case is symptomatic of increased Soviet arrests and trials of Jewish emigration activists.

52 Soviet intellectuals petition the United Nations protesting the sentence for Kochubievsky.

The United States moves to raise the issue of Soviet Jews at the United Nations. For the first time the US delegate, Rita Hauser, brings the issue to the General Assembly.

1970

March 11. 39 Soviet Jews seeking to leave for Israel protest to the Foreign Ministry against continuing anti-Israel and anti-Zionist campaign. A letter and an "open declaration" sent to Jews and others in the West create a wave of protests and public appeals targeting Moscow.

March 3. 32 local independent groups in the US join together to create the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews.

June. A heavily publicized press campaign is organized by Soviet authorities to condemn Israel. Soviet Jewish cultural, artistic and scientific personalities, are forced to be part of the propaganda undertaking.

December 10. Human Rights Day. Daily Soviet Jewry vigil is launched opposite Soviet Embassy, in Washington, D.C. The Vigil lasts 20 years.

December 16-25. First Leningrad Trial ends with Jewish and non- Jewish defendants, accused of "hi-jacking" an airplane to escape the Soviet Union and fly to the West and Israel, sentenced up to 14 years; Mark Dymshitz and Eduard Kuznetsov receive the death sentence, changed to a life term after international furor.

Soviet Jewry Daily Vigil, Washington, DC. December 10, 1970-December 10, 1990.