B’nai B’rith, citing a new low in Jewish emigration last month yesterday urged the Senate Finance Committee to withhold approval of trade concessions for Rumania because that country is not “in compliance” with the Jackson Amendment. In a letter to Sen, Russell B. Long (D.La,), chairman of the committee which is holding hearings on an Administration request to grant Rumania most favored nation status, B’nai B’rith president David M. Blumberg said that “fewer than 60 Rumanian Jews were permitted to leave” in May although thousands have indicated a desire to do so.
Blumberg said that less than 100 a month had emigrated in the first four months of this year, compared with some 3500 a year in 1973 and 1974. Commending Rumania’s past efforts “to normalize relations with nations outside the Soviet bloc,” Blumberg said he favored “a very liberal interpretation” of the Jackson Amendment, relieving Rumania of the statutory requirement of “written assurances” or “a benchmark figure” that would indicate an effort toward freer emigration. “But we could not blink our eyes to the fact that since the Congress adopted the Jackson Amendment, Rumania’s emigration practices have taken–and continue to take–a turn for the worse,” Blumberg declared.
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