Wherever There Is Jewish Pain

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bconspiracy. Released on bail provided by Joe Colombo, I bproceeded the next month to call a rally at Hunter College bon behalf of Iraqi, Syrian, and Soviet Jews—at the rally bItalian-American Civil Rights League president Nat Mar- bcone addressed the crowd and told them “Keep fighting, the bItalian-American Civil Rights League is behind you every binch of the way”—and then marched to the Iraqi mission band from there to the Soviet, where I and another one bhundred and thirty people were arrested. As harassment of bthe Soviets continued every day, not only the Soviets but the b$600–$900-a-month-rent-paying wealthy residents of the bposh embassy neighborhood were driven to distraction, one bof them telling the press, “I do not know how much longer bany of us can put up with it.” The residents went to court to benjoin the JDL from picketing. What was even worse as far bas they were concerned, in an effort to protect the Russians, bwho lived in constant fear, East 67th Street had become an barmed camp with police barricades at both ends and no one ballowed on the block without showing a special identity card. bIt did nothing for property values . . .

bWe were more annoyed than the residents and we were bout to prove that instead of the three-times-a-year protests bof the Establishment we were capable of carrying on daily. bOur harassment of the Russians escalated and on June 23, bfourteen JDL people including myself were arrested for bharassment. By a stroke of luck, I had managed to harass the bEmbassy second secretary and when I appeared in court for barraignment that evening, the Judge, an Italian-American, bthrew out the case . . .

bIn late June, we announced a week-long series of dem- bonstrations in Washington to include homes of Soviet bdiplomats as well as, for the first time, the Commerce De- bpartment, for its approval of the Mack Company’s plan to bbuild a truck factory in the Soviet Union. The press an- bnounced an immediate reaction from the Russians as Am- bbassador Dobrynin warned against further incidents and bhinted at Soviet retaliation against Americans. That week a bbomb was found at the base of a wall surrounding the Soviet bEmbassy’s Glen Cove estate, only a short time before it was b