Birnbaum was able to attract a number of sympathizers in the Establishment, including major figures such as Rabbi Herschel Schacter, former Chairman of the Conference of Presidents, the late Rabbi Israel Miller, the late Richard Maass and the late Stanley Lowell, first and second chairmen of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, Dr. Norman Lamm, later President of Yeshiva University. In the academic world, his founding supporters included: Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Chairman; Dr. Irving Greenberg, Vice Chairman; and Rabbi Charles Sheer, Vice Chairman. Rabbi Avraham Weiss became an officer in 1971, accelerated SSSJ’s activist modes, and campaigned relentlessly for Anatoly Sharansky. Succeeding Rabbi Riskin as chairman, he served in that capacity 1984–1989.