Ottinger Urges Nixon to Act to End Spiritual and Cultural Genocide of Soviet Jews

Declaring that President Nixon is the “one man” in the West who can save Soviet Jewry, Rep. Richard Ottinger today called upon Mr. Nixon to make every effort to bring to an end “the spiritual and cultural genocide of the 3 million Jews living behind the Iron Curtain.” In a telegram to Mr. Nixon, the Congressman urged the President to use the current Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) in Vienna and Big Four Mid-East conference to formally protest Soviet anti-Semitism. “When the Soviets complain about the alleged atrocities committed by the Jews of Israel against the Arabs,” Ottinger told the President, “let the U.S. delegates protest in the strongest possible terms the spiritual and cultural genocide of the 3 million Jews living behind the Iron Curtain.” and “let the U.S. delegate present a personal plea from the President.for the distribution behind the Iron Curtain of unlimited spiritual arms–prayer books, bibles and total religious freedom–to the 3 million Jews within the Soviet Union.” The third term Democratic Congressman also told newsmen that he would urge other participants of today’s Exodus March for Soviet Jewry “to bring pressure on the White House “in an effort to get President Nixon more personally involved with the plight of the oppressed Jews of Russia.”