Leaders of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry personally asked the State Department on Tuesday for assistance in finding new routes for Jews to leave the Soviet Union.
“If there were four or five transit points, that would ease the pressure,” said Shoshana Cardin, chairwoman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.
The NCSJ request, made to Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, came hours before the arrival here of Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze.
Shevardnadze will be meeting with Secretary of State James Baker from Wednesday through Friday. Eagleburger went from the NCSJ meeting to Andrews Air Force Base to welcome the Soviet foreign minister.
More than 17,000 Jews have left the Soviet Union so far this year, the vast majority of whom have settled in Israel. Most fly from the Soviet Union to Budapest, Hungary, or Bucharest, Romania, and then board planes to Tel Aviv.
While the National Conference is seeking additional cities to serve as transit points, the group has not backed down from its position that the Soviets should begin direct flights to Israel.
“Obviously direct flights would be the prime choice” for Soviet Jews wanting to go to Israel, Cardin said. But until the USSR “deems it wise for itself to permit direct flights,” the National Conference would like to see “as many additional transit points as possible,” she added.
LIST OF 246 REFUSENIKS PRESENTED
The National Conference told Eagleburger there is a need to “keep access routes open so that (Soviet Jews) don’t have the sense of being trapped,” Cardin said.
The group handed Eagleburger a list of 246 Jews refused permission to leave the Soviet Union. Of these, 121 are “poor relatives,” those blocked from leaving by family members who rely on them for financial support; 86 were refused for alleged access to “state secrets”; and 39 were “arbitrary refusals,” the group said.
The delegation also raised concerns about a six-month wait in customs for taking furniture out of the Soviet Union. Cardin explained that to Soviet emigrants, taking their furniture with them is very important, because they are not permitted to take money out of the country.
Addressing fear about the possibility of pogroms in the Soviet Union, Eagleburger said that U.S. officials “have not been able to document incidents of physical violence” against Soviet Jews, Cardin reported.
Eagleburger said Baker would ask Shevardnadze to formally recognize the Va’ad, the federation founded in December by 204 Soviet Jewish groups in 70 localities.
In the Soviet Union, “any inability to function as a registered organization means that one is illegitimate,” Cardin explained.
Richard Schifter, assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs, was at the meeting Tuesday, as were representatives of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, B’nai B’rith International, American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress and Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
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