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bWith all due respect to the Rebbe, we know that that was bnot true, nor did he ever, despite our urgings, produce one bname of a Jew who was alleged to have suffered because of bJDL activities on behalf of Soviet Jews. It should also be bclearly understood that these leaders opposed not only JDL bviolence but any kind of public protest. As the months went by band JDL actions clearly began to produce results, more and bmore of the yeshiva students began to participate in them band this drew first anger and then fear from the Yeshiva bheads. It was clear that the yeshivas could no longer simply bsit by and do nothing and so at a hurried meeting the deans bof the yeshivas agreed to call not a “protest” but a “prayer bmeeting.” We could not have cared less about the semantics. bIt was one more break in the silence of American Jewry and bJDL had once again served as the catalyst. bIn the case of the Orthodox Jewish Establishment, I felt a bparticular concern because I had expected so much more bfrom them. From the half-assimilated, fully ignorant men bwho passed for Jewish leadership in the secular Jewish Es- btablishment, one could never hope for courage, warm bJewishness, and total Judaism. But from the scholar and bcommitted Jews? From these we had a right to expect full bcommitment to fellow Jews. bI recall a Shabbat (Sabbath) morning when I stopped off bto pray at the Mirrer Yeshiva, where I had studied for bthirteen years and had been ordained. Following the ser- bvice, I went over to the dean and wished him a “Gut Shabbos” b(Good Sabbath). He took my hand and held it saying, in bYiddish, “You are murdering Russian Jews.” I had no desire bto argue with him and attempted to move away, but he held bon tightly and repeated his words, “You are murdering bRussian Jews.” I looked at the dean of the yeshiva whom I bhad known for so many years, before he had reached his bpresent position, and said to him: b“Let us say that you are right. Let us agree that protests, bpublic demonstrations, are bad for Russian Jews. But I sat in bthis yeshiva for thirteen years and I cannot recall even one btime when Psalms (the traditional supplications to G-d) were bsaid for Russian Jews. I do not remember even one fast day b
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