Action on Soviet Jewry

The American Jewish community’s efforts to mount an intensive public campaign in behalf of Soviet Jewry this year, when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visits the United States, were discussed at meetings in Detroit on Sunday and Hartford on Monday.

They were part of a series of regional conferences on Soviet Jewry and Summit II sponsored by local groups, with the cooperation of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC) and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ).

The conferences are a component of a national campaign for Soviet Jewry, coordinated by the NCSJ, which is intended to ensure that the issue is in the forefront of the agenda when President Reagan meets with Gorbachev at the White House. The national effort is headed by honorary chairman Elie Wiesel.

A PLEA BY ALEXANDER SLEPAK

The Hartford gathering, organized by the Greater Hartford Jewish Federation Community Relations Committee, featured an appearance by Alexander Slepak, the son of long-time Soviet Jewish refuseniks Vladimir and Masha Slepak of Moscow. Slepak, who is studying medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, spoke soon after seeing his father appear in a film clip used in a new videotape on Soviet Jewry dedicated to Anatoly Shcharansky.

In a moving reference to his father, Alexander said, “I want him out. I want him next to Shcharansky. They started their struggle together, they have to finish together.” The videotape, entitled, “Shcharansky: The Struggle Continues,” was produced by the United Jewish Appeal for the NCSJ, and was given its first public viewing at the conference.

Slepak noted that gatherings like these bring hope to Soviet Jews in his homeland. “I am free now because you fought for so long, and brought up our case at international meetings. Please keep working for the Slepak family and the thousands of other refuseniks.”

SOVIET INTERESTS ASSESSED

The reasons the Soviets might find it in their interest to free Soviet Jewry were explored by keynote speaker Dr. Robert Freedman, dean of the Graduate School of Baltimore Hebrew College. He noted that last year the Soviets sent signals about the possible resumption of diplomatic ties with Israel and the possible renewal of the Jewish emigration movement when they feared success for the Middle East peace process. Now, however, Middle East peace is on hold and U.S.-Soviet relations are more important.

“And now that they want trade and technology from the United States we have leverage again for Soviet Jewry before the Summit,” Freed-man said. “President Reagan must be able to point through the window of the White House during the Summit and say ‘the American people do care about Soviet Jewry'”

MEETINGS WITH GORBACHEV

The conference in Detroit featured appearances by two Michigan Congressmen, both of whom had visited the Soviet Union, Rep. Sander Levin (D.), who met with refuseniks during a trip to the Soviet Union last year, read from a letter to him by Lev Shapiro of Leningrad asking for his help in emigrating. The letter was brought out by his colleague Rep. William Broomfield (R.), who had just returned from a trip to the Soviet Union last week.

Broomfield met with Gorbachev and said he believed that “we may be close to a breakthrough on the question of freedom for Soviet Jew.” Broomfield, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, travelled to the Soviet Union with the committee’s chairman, Florida Democrat Dante Fascell.

Broomfield described a meeting he and Fascell had with Gorbachev, noting that the Soviet officials at first refused to allow U.S. Ambassador Arthur Hartman to join them. “This shows the relationship between our two countries is very strained,” the Congressman said, adding, “Gorbachev is trying to put leverage on the Reagan Administration through members of Congress.”

The Detroit meeting was sponsored by the Soviet Jewry Committee of the Detroit Jewish Community Council.

The Hartford and Detroit meetings followed a midwest conference in Cincinnati on March 31. Similar meetings are planned for Baltimore on April 20, and in Houston and California as the Summit draws closer.