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[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 137 Introduced in House (IH)]

110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 137

 Honoring the life and six decades of public service of Jacob Birnbaum 
   and especially his commitment freeing Soviet Jews from religious, 
                   cultural, and communal extinction.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 7, 2007

Mr. Nadler (for himself, Mr. Weiner, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. Waxman, 
   Mr. Engel, Mr. Ackerman, Mrs. Maloney of New York, Mr. Cohen, Mr. 
   Wexler, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Holt, Ms. Kilpatrick, and Mr. 
  Hastings of Florida) submitted the following resolution; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
 Honoring the life and six decades of public service of Jacob Birnbaum 
   and especially his commitment freeing Soviet Jews from religious, 
                   cultural, and communal extinction.

Whereas Jacob Birnbaum was born on December 10, 1926, and December 10 is 
        International Human Rights Day;
Whereas Birnbaum performed relief work with victims of Nazi and Soviet 
        totalitarianism from 1946 through 1951, then worked with the 
        disintegrating Jewish communities of North Africa in the mid-1950s and 
        early 1960s;
Whereas, in 1964, Birnbaum moved to New York and founded the Student Struggle 
        for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ) on April 27 of that year;
Whereas four days later Birnbaum organized approximately 1,000 students who 
        marched for four hours in front of the Mission to the United Nations of 
        the Soviet Union on May 1, 1964, to begin the direct action public 
        struggle for Soviet Jewry;
Whereas the SSSJ utilized nonviolent methods, including marches, rallies, 
        publication of extensive educational materials, and meetings with 
        government officials, to organize and activate students to take direct 
        action in the cause of freeing Soviet Jews trapped behind the Iron 
        Curtain, utilizing the slogan ``Let My People Go'';
Whereas, on April 4, 1965, Birnbaum organized the Jericho March, in which 
        students encircled the Soviet Mission and sounded shofars from all 
        around the building and proceeded to rally at the United Nations;
Whereas, on April 12, 1965, petitions were presented at the United Nations's 
        Isaiah Wall;
Whereas Birnbaum organized a Jericho Ride to Washington, DC, on May 20, 1965, 
        where he and the first SSSJ chairman Rabbi Shlomo Riskin met with senior 
        Soviet diplomat Anatoly Myshkov, and thereafter the students circled the 
        Embassy of the Soviet Union to the sound of shofars, then moved on to 
        the Department of State for a vigorous discussion, and finally arrived 
        in Lafayette Park in front of the White House for a rally addressed by 
        Members of Congress and the reading of an Appeal to Conscience;
Whereas Birnbaum and his student steering committee organized approximately 
        thirty events in SSSJ's first two years to awaken the Jewish community 
        in New York and beyond to the plight of Soviet Jews;
Whereas Birnbaum's important New York marches and rallies in the 1960s were the 
        instrumental precursors of the great Solidarity events of the 1970s 
        organized by the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry under the 
        direction of Malcolm Hoenlein, the founding director;
Whereas Birnbaum has testified before committees of the House of Representatives 
        and the Senate and the Helsinki Commission;
Whereas Birnbaum advocated utilizing economic leverage at a Congressional 
        hearing as early as May 1965;
Whereas Birnbaum worked closely in the early 1970s with Senator Henry Jackson, 
        who introduced legislation linking United States trade benefits and 
        capital flow to the Soviet Union with increased Soviet emigration;
Whereas Birnbaum was one of the most persistent of those individuals who fought 
        for passage of the Jackson-Vanik amendment to allow Soviet Jews and 
        other East European Jews to escape oppression and religious, cultural, 
        and communal genocide in the Soviet bloc;
Whereas Birnbaum conducted a number of campaigns with Presidents and Congress 
        for the protection of Soviet Jewish underground self-education groups 
        and organized a delegation of the Synagogue Council of America to meet 
        with the Deputy Secretary of State in 1985;
Whereas Birnbaum received the Prophet in Our Time Award in 1974 on the tenth 
        anniversary of the SSSJ;
Whereas Birnbaum received the Yeshiva University Community Service Award in 1988 
        and the Freedom Award in 2004 from the Manhattan Beach Jewish Center;
Whereas Birnbaum was honored in 2004 by the Conference of Presidents of Major 
        American Jewish Organizations on the 40th anniversary of the initiation 
        of the Soviet Jewry movement;
Whereas during the 1990s Birnbaum was engaged in a number of interventions in 
        the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, especially Uzbekistan; and
Whereas Birnbaum continues to assist institutions for the Jewish education of 
        former Soviet Jews as part of his ``Let My People Know'' campaign: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved,  That the House of Representatives honors the life and 
six decades of public service of Jacob Birnbaum and especially his 
commitment to freeing Soviet Jews from religious, cultural, and 
communal extinction.
                                 <all>
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