Professor Addresses Rally In Support of Soviet Jews

In a rally against the recent Soviet crack down on Jews wishing to emigrate Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz last night challenged President Bok and others to fight Soviet oppression.

Dershowitz made frequent reference to campus activism over South Africa and demanded similar commitment to the Jewish plight from members of the university community. "It is wrong to take action only against some violators of human rights," he said in a speech from the steps of Widener Library to a crowed of nearly 150 students.

The Hillel sponsored demonstration-featured speeches by Dershowitz and Soviet emigre Mira Khmelnitskaya and centered on the plight of a hospitalized refusenik Nadezha Eradkova.

Dershowitz, who is legal counsel to dissident Anatoly Scharansks and an honorary head of Action for Soviet Jewry, asked students to "point fingers of accusation" at inactive fellow students and professors.

He added that "Third World faces" in the audience were a welcome sight, but asked if minority groups at Harvard "produce as many supporters for our struggle as Jews do for their struggles around the world."

Organizers of the rally said the Soviets have increased dramatically their persecution of Jews and are steadily choking off emigration to Israel.

Shoshana M. Robinson '87, co-chair of Hillel's committee on oppressed Jewry, said she hoped publicity from the demonstration might help pressure government officials into allowing Fradkova to leave the country.

Khmelnitskaya and Regina Olshen '85, a recent emigre attending the rally, agreed that the situation for Jews in the USSR has deteriorated. Khmelnitskaya, a personal friend of Fradkova, gave an emotional account of her history.

Hillel members held candles and passed around a petition demanding Fradkova's release. The petition will be sent to the Soviet ambassador and to government officials, members said.

After the rally the group showed a recent film by Nieman Fellow Samuel Rachlin on Jews in Moscow.