sentences:  According to the Center for Jewish History, this May Day rally marked the commencement of public confrontation with the Kremlin and the initiation of the national movement for Soviet Jewry.Thereafter, four other Soviet Jewry pioneers, Dr. Moshe Decter, Professor Abraham Joshua Heschel, Israeli diplomat Dr. Meir Rosenne, and Dr. Louis Rosenblum of Cleveland (later founding Chairman of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews), were delighted to support Birnbaum's initiatives.Ten days later, Birnbaum formed SSSJ's first steering committee and initiated a series of groundbreaking public events which in the course of two years resulted in a surge of public consciousness which pushed the hesitant U.S. Jewish establishment from a policy of quiet diplomacy toward a more activist mode.