One of the two Jewish leaders who recently visited the Soviet Union said Tuesday their aim was to seek an alleviation of the problems suffered by Jews in the Soviet Union.
This included the rights of Jews to emigrate and “the right to live as Jews within the Soviet Union which has been denied them since the (Communist) revolution,” Morris Abram, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, told reporters.
He spoke after he briefed Secretary of State George Shultz on the meetings he and Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress, had with Soviet officials. Abram, accompanied by several other Jewish leaders, met for 30 minutes with Shultz, who leaves next week for the Soviet Union.
Abram said that it was stressed to the Soviets that American Jewish leaders wanted to “help them take the Jewish problem off the table as a source of tension and discussion between the East and West.”
But he stressed that they were not putting their faith in any promises made by the Soviets but “on their performance.”
Abram said that conditions had not improved for Jews in the USSR except that emigration figures are “up slightly.” But he said that the Soviet performance should not be judged by the fact that 900-1,000 Jews are allowed to leave in a month over the smaller number for the same month last year, but against the 4,000 a month that were allowed to emigrate in 1979.
He said that the American Jewish community was against allowing any concessions from the Jackson-Vanik amendment until the emigration problem was solved.
Abram also said that it was stressed to the Soviets that Hungary remains a “socialist” country even though it allows it Jews to emigrate or to live their lives in Hungary as Jews.
Abram was accompanied to the meeting with Shultz by Martin Stein, national president of the United Jewish Appeal; Shoshana Cardin, president of the Council of Jewish Federations; Max Fisher; Elan Steinberg, director of the WJC American Section; Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive director of the Presidents Conference; Jerry Goodman, executive director of the NCSJ, and Mark Levin, the NCSJ Washington representative.
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.
