The White House announced today that President Nixon has invited “representative members” of the American Jewish press to attend a “special series” of “high level briefings” at the White House on Monday, March 13. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency was informed that 110 editors and publishers of Jewish dailies, weeklies, monthlies, periodicals and the JTA have been incited.
Telegrams signed by Herbert G. Klein, Director of Communications for the White House, sent today to editors and publishers, opened with the phrase “The President has asked me to invite you…” The telegram said that “key members of the administration” will give the briefings and “will deal with those issues which are of major importance to the Jewish communities.” The JTA was told that the topics will include Soviet Jewry, the Middle East, national economic issues, and poverty and crime in the cities.
Named in the telegram to give the briefings were Klein; Herbert Stein, chairman of the President’s Board of Economic Advisers; Joseph J. Sisco, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs; Leonard Garment, civil rights advisor to the President; and William Safire, a special advisor to the President and a Presidential speech writer. The sessions, according to the telegram, will run for six hours–from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The program will begin with a special tour of the White House.
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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.