The Synagogue Council of America expressed “unwavering support” today for the Jackson Amendment and the Mills-Vanik Bill as an “enterprise on behalf of human dignity” In a policy statement adopted by the SCA’s executive committee, the central coordinating agency for the major national synagogal and rabbinic organizations of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism also expressed “profound gratitude for President Nixon’s expression of concern for the plight of Soviet Jews” which he communicated in a meeting with Jewish community representatives on April 19.
The Council’s statement expressed particular gratification that Nixon had received assurance from Soviet leadership that the education tax on would-be emigrants is no longer being applied. The religious leaders expressed their conviction that the Jackson Amendment and the Mills-Vanik Bill have served as a “major factor” in strengthening the President’s hand on behalf of Soviet Jewry.
“While we are encouraged that the Soviet authorities are not presently enforcing the education tax, we are concerned that there have been abrupt reversals in liberalized Soviet emigration practices during the past year,” the statement declared. “We are further concerned that the education tax is but one of a cluster of obstacles by which the Soviet Union presently limits the right and opportunity to emigrate.”
The policy statement expressed support for Nixon’s efforts to achieve detente between the great powers, but maintained that progress “will be neither real nor lasting if we acquiesce in the suppression of fundamental human rights.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
