A former senior State Department official who helped press the Soviet Union for increased Jewish emigration said Monday that the United States has the moral responsibility to admit all 17,000 Jews stranded in Vienna and Rome.
“As one of the people who banged on the table, who insisted” to Moscow that Jews be allowed to emigrate, “I would say it is a matter of conscience to take care of them,” said Rozanne Ridgway, former assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian affairs.
Ridgway spoke at the 18th annual leadership assembly of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry at which she received NCSJ’s Solidarity Award.
Ridgway expressed pleasure at the increased emigration that resulted because of her efforts and that of others in the Reagan administration. But she said the Soviet Union is a “highly dynamic state of instability” and must be watched to see that the improvements are institutionalized in the Soviet constitution and laws.
Ridgway said that she understands the global concerns and other problems that have caused the Bush administration to put a limit on refugees.
“I do hope that some way can be found very quickly, whether it is a special category or special legislation, to bring to the United States those Soviet Jews who went to Vienna and Rome,” she said, referring to those still waiting to receive U.S refugee visas.
She said they left the Soviet Union “under one set of circumstances, one set of promises, one set of expectations in a completely different context and are now caught between the tides of changing times.”
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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.
