Jewish Delegation Meets with Soviet Officials on Situation of Russian Jews

A five-man delegation representing the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington was received at the Soviet Embassy this afternoon and conducted an hour-long dialogue with two Soviet officials on the problem of Jews in the USSR. The officials, Embassy Third Secretary Vadim Kuznetzov and Political Attache, Vladimir Shimanovsky, accepted a statement for Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin. The statement, demanding cultural rights and the right of emigration for Soviet Jews was read aloud to them first by Seymour D. Wolf, president of the Washington JCC. It was the first such statement to be accepted by the Embassy. A written plea on behalf of the Leningrad trial defendants which Wolf brought to the Embassy last December was turned away and officials refused at the time to let the Jewish delegation leave the document on Embassy premises.

According to accounts of today’s meeting given to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the Embassy officials denied that Jews were repressed in the Soviet Union and asserted that procedures existed for emigration. Told that at least 80,000 Jews want to leave Russia now but cannot obtain exit visas, the officials said they would be allowed to go when the Middle East conflict is settled and there is a “good peace,” according to Dr. Isaac Franck, executive vice president of the Washington JCC. The Jewish group was asked why they engaged in anti-Soviet activities. Dr. Franck said he replied that Jews do not engage in such activities and hoped for improved relations between the U.S. and USSR. But he said, Jews insist on full rights for their fellow Jews in Russia according to the Soviet constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Dr. Franck said the delegation rejected the argument of the Soviet officials that Jews who wish to leave were educated at the expense of the Soviet government and must give Russia value for their education.