The formation of an American Jewish committee to support the re-election of Sen. James Buckley (R.NY) was announced here Friday. The announcement was made by Rabbi Seymour Siegel, a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, who is chairman of the committee. Other members of the committee are Jack Sable, former N.Y. State Human Rights Commissioner, Rabbi Dennis Liff and Rabbi Benzion Shaffrin.
Siegel, in announcing the formation of the committee at a press conference at Buckley’s re-election headquarters here, said that Buckley “has been a staunch friend of the State of Israel. He supported military aid, economic assistance and political support for the Jewish state. Mr. Buckley’s support has been steady and unswerving from the very beginning of his public career.”
Siegel also noted that Buckley “has taken a special interest in the problems of Soviet Jewry” and that Buckley’s “understanding of the nature of Soviet tyranny assures us that his support of the cause of the ‘prisoners of conscience’ can be relied upon in the future.”
Welcoming the formation of the new committee, Buckley said that he is aware that Jewish voters are concerned with the fate of Israel and Soviet Jewry. But, he said, Jewish voters in New York are not one-issue voters. “They are also concerned with inflation and scatter-site housing and the quota system in hiring and education and other issues.” He said he fought against all of these for six years and voted for values that Jewish families share with millions of other New Yorkers.
(By Yitzhak Rabi)
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