Christian Group Demands Freedom of Emigration for Soviet Jews

In what may be the strongest statement on the situation of Soviet Jewry by an organized Christian group, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has scored that situation, demanded freedom of emigration, and resolved to bring its statement to the attention of the appropriate national leaders. The resolution, passed last week in Louisville, Ky., at the Church’s biennial national assembly, was made available here yesterday.

It was immediately welcomed “with appreciation” by Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, national Interreligious Affairs director of the American Jewish Committee, who declared: “The fact that this national body of Christian leadership, representing over 5,000 churches and a million and a half people, has publicly identified itself with the plight of the Jewish victims of Soviet persecution and oppression is another dramatic demonstration that the conscience of mankind will not rest until liberation and justice prevail for the three million Russian Jews, and hopefully for all other people who are denied their human rights in the Soviet Union.”

The resolution was passed by the 3,000 delegates after they rejected a weaker text. The resolution recognizes that “in 1971 there has been particularly blatant discrimination in the Soviet Union practiced against the three and one-half million Jews, who unlike the Christians, are not permitted to publish devotional literature or articles, or to have contact with those of their faith in other countries, or to operate seminaries.”

The trials of Jews this year in Leningrad and Riga “provided new and frightening evidence that anti-Semitism once again in this century imperils the life of the Jewish community,” the delegates declared. They noted that religious discrimination against Christians as well as Jews, exists outside the USSR as well, but stated that “it is still imperative for Christians to speak out now against this particular attack against the Jewish community in the Soviet Union.”

The Church convention called on the Kremlin to “observe fully” the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the Soviets’ own laws; to “cease financial, vocational and educational discrimination, separation of families, and arrests of Jews and Christians,” and to grant “unhindered” emigration rights. The convention directed that its resolution be forwarded to President Nixon, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, United Nations Ambassador George Bush, and Soviet Ambassadors Anatoly F. Dobrynin (in Washington) and Yakob A. Malik (at the UN) “for their information and whatever action they deem appropriate.”