Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry
{{Short description|American non-governmental organisation supporting Soviet Jewish rights}}
{{Infobox organization
| image = Bumper sticker from the Papers of Morey Schapira, “Another American for Soviet Jews” (14767518286).jpg
| caption=Bumper sticker by the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry
| type = NGO
| abbreviation = GNYCSJ
| founding_location = New York, NY
}}
The Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry (GNYCSJ) was founded in 1971, as a non-governmental grassroots organization that worked to secure human rights for Jews in the Soviet Union. It served as an umbrella agency for a number of regional organizations of the Soviet Jewry movement. In the 1980 GNYCSJ was renamed Coalition To Free Soviet Jews.{{Cite book|title=The struggle for Soviet Jewry in American politics : Israel versus the American Jewish establishment|author=Lazin, Frederick A.|isbn=0739161415|location=Lanham, Md.|oclc=857769728|date = 2005-04-19}}
Activities
File:If our voices die, so do their hopes. March for Soviet Jewry Solidarity (5225337728).jpg
The organization gathered information on the conditions of Jews in the USSR, mostly from the American tourists visiting refuseniks in Soviet Union, and informed federal, state, and local government officials, thus influencing the Soviet-American relations during the two final decades of the Cold War. The GNYCSJ organized public events aimed to raise public awareness of the plight of the Soviet Jewry, including annual Solidarity Sunday rallies that gathered large crowds of supporters in New York City.{{Cite book|title=When they come for us, we'll be gone : the epic struggle to save Soviet Jewry|last=Gal.|first=Beckerman|date=2010|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-0547504438|location=Boston|oclc=759835756}} GNYCSJ co-sponsored the 1987 Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jews in Washington, D.C. attended by 250,000 participants.{{Cite web|url=https://www.jta.org/1987/12/07/archive/more-than-200000-rally-on-behalf-of-soviet-jewry-in-massive-d-c-gathering|title=More Than 200,000 Rally on Behalf of Soviet Jewry in Massive D.C. Gathering|date=December 7, 1987|website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|access-date=30 January 2018}}
Leadership
Malcolm Hoenlin was the first director of GNYCSJ.{{Cite book|title=A second exodus : the American movement to free Soviet Jews|date=1999|publisher=Brandeis University Press|others=Friedman, Murray, 1926-2005., Chernin, Albert D.|isbn=0874519136|location=Hanover, NH|oclc=40521266}} During the 1970s the GNYCSJ was chaired by Robert Abrams and during the 1980s by Seymour P. Lachman, who was also a member of the board of directors of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS).{{Cite web|url=http://wagner.edu/trustees/seymour-p-lachman/|title=Wagner College Board of Trustees—Dr. Seymour P. Lachman|website=Wagner College|access-date=30 January 2018}} Zeesy Schnur served as the executive director.{{Cite web|url=http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/30-years-later-the-big-rally-is-little-remembered/|title=30 Years Later, 'The Big Rally' Is Little Remembered|last=Rosenblatt|first=Gary|date=November 15, 2017|website=The New York Jewish Week|access-date=30 January 2018}}
Footnotes
External links
- [http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=365629 Guide to the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry collection] at the American Jewish Historical Society.
Category:Central Asian American culture in New York (state)
Category:Human rights organizations based in the United States
Category:Jewish political organizations
Category:Organizations established in 1971
Category:Russian-Jewish culture in New York City