ABSTRACT
In 1964, the wave of anti-Semitism that had characterized the final years of Khrushchev's reign continued to influence public opinion, with the extensive media coverage in many countries provoking substantial outrage. Certain American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry (AJCSJ) member organizations wished to follow the example of the civil rights movement by employing new forms of action and more carefully staging the conference's public interventions. The presence of Nativ recruits at the events organized by the AJCSJ offers the best indication of the nature of relations between the Israeli office and the new organization. On April 5 and 6, 1964, an inaugural meeting in Washington brought together twenty-four of the most important national organizations. As early as 1964, however, the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry, like the grassroots organizations, had defined its own "repertoire of collective actions" that outlined the more or less codified and more or less institutionalized forms of protest it wished to use.
