A Nixon Administration official was accused today by Sen. Henry M. Jackson of trying to coerce Soviet Jews to oppose the Jackson Amendment to the East-West Trade Act. The Washington Democrat referred to Stephen Lazarus, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for East-West Trade who, he alleged, sent “an intermediary to meet with a group of Russian Jews…to advise them to lobby American citizens against my amendment to the trade bill that would make trade concessions to the Soviet Union contingent on free emigration.”
Lazards was not immediately available for comment; However, his deputy, John Connor, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Lazarus declared as “flatly untrue” a report that he had urged a letter-writing campaign or had conveyed “any form” of pressure or warning to Soviet Jews during his visit to Moscow Feb. 13.
Jackson said that according to a statement by 12 Jewish scientists in Moscow, “this American official warned that the Soviet government would ‘wreak vengeance’ on its Jewish citizens and that ‘no one would be able to come to (their) aid’ if the Jackson Amendment were to be approved by Congress.”
NEGATIVE REACTION BUT NO PRESSURE
Jackson made his charge against Lazarus in the course of disclosing a letter he had received from Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov appealing for passage of the Jackson Amendment to protect the rights of Soviet citizens–Jews and non-Jews–who want to emigrate. Jackson also attacked other high Administration officials opposing his amendment. He mentioned by name Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Caspar Weinberger, and by title Secretary of State-designate Dr. Henry Kissinger.
Lazarus is directly concerned with the Jackson Amendment’s implications on U.S.-Soviet trade. Connor told the JTA that neither Lazarus nor he nor any other Commerce Department employe had engaged in pressures charged by Jackson. He said Lazarus “conceded” that he had “reacted negatively” when the Moscow correspondent for Newsweek magazine Jay Axelbank, told him at a cocktail party that Soviet Jews were planning to petition Congress in favor of the Jackson Amendment.
Connor said that Lazarus expressed the hope that the “counter-productive petition” would not be put forward since the White House is “quietly pressing the Soviet government to end the controversial emigration tax.” Connor added that Lazarus “expected” Axelbank would pass on this reaction because the correspondent has been criticized in the Soviet press for having alleged ties with dissidents. “This is the source of the wildly distorted charges that have now been made,” Connor said Lazarus had reported.
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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.
