Dr. Nahum Goldmann, in his capacity as president of the World Jewish Congress, conferred with Soviet Ambassador Jakob Malik here in connection with the invitation received from Moscow Chief Rabbi Solomon Shlieffer to send a WJC delegation to the Soviet Union to study Jewish life there.
Dr. Goldmann said today that there is still a good deal about the invitation to be clarified. He took not of a repot which appeared today in the “Jewish Observer,” a London publication, from Moscow to the effect that Rabbi Shlieffer had said he did not send the invitation to Dr. Goldmann on behalf of the Soviet government but as a personal invitation.
Dr. Goldmann, it is understood here, does not intend to go to Moscow unless the terms of the invitation are changed basically. He would head a World Jewish Congress delegation only if it were arranged in advance that the delegation would confer with leaders of major Soviet Jewish communities and if it would be possible for the delegation to meet with members of the Soviet Government to clarify their stand on various aspects of Jewish life in the USSR.
Commenting on the report in the “Jewish Observer,” Dr. Goldmann said he was never under the impression that it came from the Soviet Government. However, it seemed to him to imply clearly something more than a personal invitation. His talk yesterday with Ambassador Malik here followed similar talks he had recently with the Soviet Ambassador in Paris. There is no doubt that the two Soviet Ambassadors conveyed to Moscow the suggestions made by Dr. Goldmann.
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