25 YEARS AGO: More than 200,000 demonstrate in Washington in support of Soviet Jewry

American Jews are marking the 25th anniversary of the historic Freedom Sunday Rally held in Washington, DC on 6 December 1987 at which more than 200,000 people gathered to urge the Soviet Union leadership to allow the country's Jews to leave. Demonstrators on the US capital's National Mall were shouting “Let my people go!” It was the largest Jewish rally ever held in Washington DC and one of the largest marches in American history. For many it signaled a turning point in the 40-year struggle that led ultimately to the liberation of 1.5 million Soviet Jews.

Protestors came from throughout the United States and Canada, as well as Israel and other countries. They urged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to allow all Jews who wished to leave the Soviet Union to do so. The demonstration came 24 hours before Gorbachev arrived in Washington for a summit with President Ronald Reagan. "The human rights issue is now a permanent part of the US-Soviet agenda," the Vice President George Bush declared at the rally. He said that human rights "will be high on the agenda for the summit" and added that "I will personally raise it with Mr. Gorbachev.

Recently released refuseniks, such as Natan Sharansky, Vladimir Slepak, Yuli Edelstein, Ida Nudel, Mikhail Kholmiansky and Felix Abramovich, lit candles on a giant menorah.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, honorary chairman of the Summit Task Force which had organized the demonstration, said it had taken 20 years to bring about such a large gathering. "It is now clear that had there been such a large demonstration of Jews and human solidarity of concern in 1942, 1943 and 1944, millions of Jews would have been saved," Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, told the crowd. "But too many were silent then. We are not silent today."

In the end, the struggle to free Soviet Jewry, which was also supported by organizations such as the World Jewish Congress, whose leadership repeatedly visited Moscow to press the Soviets to change their policies, was successful and Soviet Jews gained the right to emigrate. An estimated one million went to Israel and around half a million to other countries.