chief socialist-realist architect Boris Iofan (who was still at work on the ultimate public building of all time, the Palace of the Soviets). On the day the appeal was published (August 24, 1941), a special “rally of the representatives of the Jewish people” was broadcast by Radio Moscow to the Allied countries. Both the written appeal and the radio addresses referred to their audience as “brother-Jews the world over,” emphasized the role of the Jews as the primary victims of Nazism, expressed pride in the heroism of their fighting “kinsmen,” and called on those who were far from the battlefields for help and support. In the words of the published document, “Throughout the tragic history of our long-suffering people—from the time of Roman domination through the Middle Ages—there has never been a period that can compare to the horror and calamity that fascism has brought to all humanity and, with particular ferocity, to the Jewish people.” In this hour of horror and calamity, it turned out that the Jewish people —“ethnic” or religious, Communist, Zionist, or traditionalist—were one family. As the director of the State Jewish Theater, Solomon Mikhoels, put it, Along with all the citizens of our great country, our sons are engaged in battle, dedicating their lives and blood to the great patriotic war of liberation, being waged by the Soviet people. Our mothers themselves are sending their sons into this battle for justice, for the great cause of our free Soviet homeland. Our fathers are fighting alongside their sons and brothers against the enemy who is ravaging and annihilating the people. And you, our brothers, remember that here in our country, on the battlefields, your fate as well as the fate of the countries you live in is being decided. Don’t be lulled by the thought that Hitler’s brutal savagery will spare you. Of all the brothers and sisters living outside of the Soviet Union and occupied Europe, the largest number lived in America. It was to them that most of the appeals were directed, and it was from them that the strongest fraternal sentiment was expected. In the words of Ilya Ehrenburg, “There is no ocean behind which you can hide. . . . Your peaceful sleep will be disturbed by the cries of Leah from Ukraine, Rachel from Minsk, Sarah from Białystok—they are weeping over their slaughtered children.” 118 Mikhoels, Ehrenburg, and others were moved by the “call of blood” and moral outrage. The Soviet officials who sponsored the rally and edited the speeches were mostly interested in financial assistance and the opening of a