DESCRIPTION

The Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry (GNYCSJ) was formed in 1971 by the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York, to address the need for an organization that would be devoted exclusively to the problems of Soviet Jewry. GNYCSJ served as the coordinating body of Soviet Jewry activities for more than 85 constituent Jewish organizations and community groups through the New York metropolitan area, with the affiliates in the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jewish communities. The GNYCSJ conducted vigils, demonstrations, meetings, lectures, concerts, press conferences, and memorial services. Solidarity Sundays for Soviet Jewry, the GNYCSJ's influential series of annual mass demonstrations in New York City, attracted hundreds of thousands of attendees, and served as a model for similar demonstrations on behalf of Soviet Jews nationwide, culminating in the milestone Freedom Sunday national march in Washington, D.C. on December 6, 1987, co-organized by the GNYCSJ. It was attended by 250,000 people and is often referred to as the largest Jewish rally ever held in the United States. The breadth and complexity of its programming allowed the GNYCSJ to keep the Soviet Jewry issue in the public eye. In the mid-1980s the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry was renamed the Greater New York Coalition for Soviet Jewry. The organization wound down its activities during the final years of the Soviet Union when the restrictions on emigration for Soviet Jews were lifted under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's program of Perestroika—restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system.

Link to finding aid: https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/resources/5708

DATES

1971-1991