Jewish Leaders Express Satisfaction That Soviet Jewry Issue Will Be Stressed in U.S. Talks with the

A group of Jewish leaders emerged from a 45-minute meeting with Secretary of State George Shultz Wednesday to express their “satisfaction” that the Reagan Administration will continue stressing the issue of Soviet Jewry in its negotiations with the Soviet Union.

Morris Abram, chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ) who led the delegation, said the group expressed “appreciation” to the Administration and “particularly President Reagan,” for making the issue of human rights, Jewish emigration and Jewish rights within the USSR an important item of negotiations during last year’s Geneva summit between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Shultz assured the group that the issue will continue to be discussed with the Soviet Union at “all levels,” including the expected Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Washington.

The meeting was scheduled two days before Shultz is to meet with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze at which the summit is expected to be discussed.

Earlier Wednesday, Abram announced the launching of the “Campaign to Summit II,” a nationwide effort to demonstrate the American public’s support for pressing the human rights issues at the summit.

Abram said Shultz was given a 15-page memorandum outlining the situation of Soviet Jewry since Gorbachev came to power. He noted that Gorbachev is a “new face, but he is advancing an old policy, a policy of repression, persecution and step-down in emigration.”

CITES ‘A PERFECT ILLUSTRATION’

Abram said that the case of Nicholas Daniloff, the American journalist charged with being a spy, is “a perfect illustration” that the Soviet Union operates by different values than does the West.

In the past, Abram has frequently stressed that if the Soviet Union cannot live up to its obligations to the agreements it signed on human rights, how could it be trusted on arms control. He used the same argument Wednesday citing the Daniloff case.

“If they fabricate and put out disinformation in respect to Daniloff, it’s not very hopeful they will keep their word on matters that affect their national security more vitally than that,” he said.

Abram, who is also chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, was accompanied to the meeting with Shultz by Kenneth Bialkin, past chairman of the Presidents Conference; Michael Pelavin, chairman of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council; Seymour Reich, president of B’nai B’rith International; Jerry Goodman, the NCSJ’s executive director; and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive director of the Presidents Conference.