2,000 Rally for Emigration of Jews From Soviet Union

More than 2,000 Jews--many of them immigrants from the Soviet Union--rallied outside the Federal Building in Westwood on Sunday and called on the U.S. and Soviet governments to expedite the emigration of thousands of Soviet Jews from their homeland.

Clustering at the base of the building, Jewish community leaders said nearly 250,000 Jews are seeking to leave the Soviet Union in the wake of rising anti-Semitism.

“Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe has always existed,” said Ellen Rabin, a member of the Jewish Federation Council. “It was disguised as anti-Zionism. Since glasnost began, it has opened the door to private articulation of anti-Semitism.”

Other leaders described many Soviet Jews as prisoners in their own country.

“It’s an outrage that Soviet Jews, or any other people, who want to leave a country cannot,” said Dr. Howard D. Garber, a member of the Republican Central Committee in Orange County. “They have been held prisoner. We’re here for all of the Soviet Jews who want to leave.”

Throughout the 1 1/2-hour rally on the north lawn of the building, speakers warned of “pogrom,” an alleged plot by Soviet nationalists to harass Jews.

“There’s a common opinion among many Soviet nationalists that Soviet Jews are American spies,” said Eugene Levin, a telecommunications expert. “They want to blame Jews for national problems.”

But political leaders such as Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky encouraged Jews to struggle against would-be oppressors.

“There are people who long for the good old days when you could kick Jews, pillage their property, push them around,” Yaroslavsky said. “But those days are over, and they are never coming back.”

The rally was sponsored by the Assn. of Soviet Jewish Emigres, the Southern California Council for Soviet Jews and the Jewish Federation.