In 1965 Birnbaum led SSSJ in a challenge to the wall of separation cutting off Soviet Jewry. He organized two Jericho Marches around Soviet diplomatic buildings in New York (April) and Washington, DC (May) to the accompaniment of the sounds of the shofar. The walls did not tumble down but the media understood the symbolism. At the April event, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach first sang his great Jewish solidarity anthem (sought from him by Birnbaum), "Am Yisrael Chai", meaning "The Jewish people live." In December 1965, for the festival of Hanukkah, Birnbaum ordered a quantity of metal piping and personally supervised the all-night building of a huge candelabra for a Freedom Lights Menorah March through Central Park. Nineteen months of intense street activity plus the distribution of much educational material resulted in a breakthrough, stirring a number of Jewish establishment organizations to greater activism, and they joined SSSJ's great Redemption (Geulah) March of Passover 1966 with a record turnout of some 12,000 people. The Exodus March of Passover 1970 drew some 20,000, as did a Madison Square Garden Hanukkah event in 1971.