Conference taveng::bagels

433.0. "Martin Luther King" by CSCMA::SEIDMAN (Aaron Seidman) Wed Jan 27 1988 19:04

	Last Thursday's (Boston) Jewish Advocate carried an 
    interesting story on an unusual celebration of Martin Luther King's
    birthday. 

	According to the Advocate, the Cornerstone Baptist Church 
    invited Nora Samarov to speak to the congregation to tell about how
    she has been trying for ten years to get her parents out of the
    Soviet Union.  Her parents, Emil and Tsylia Mendzheritsky, have had
    their applications rejected 21 times, most recently in December. 

	In response to her story, most of the congregants wrote letters
    of protest then and there to Secretary Gorbachov on behalf of the
    Mendzheritskys. 

	The pastor, the Reverend Earl Jackson, was quoted as saying:
    ..."This is what Martin Luther King's Birthday is all about. It's
    about saving people and trying to improve and uplift the Black
    community, but if we stop there, we have completely missed what Dr.
    King was all about. We see our Jewish brothers and sister hurting,
    how can we not respond?"