Ten religious leaders of the three branches of American Jewry in the Synagogue Council of America met with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance at the State Department for almost an hour Friday to discuss a wide variety of issues. Later at a news conference, the spokesman for the delegation commended President Carter and Vance for their stand on human rights, reflected their deep concern for Soviet Jewry and assailed the Jewish Defense League for its statement last Thursday about the Hanafi Moslems.
Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein, the SCA president who headed the delegation, said the SCA does not endorse JDL’s principles, philosophy or any of its actions. Reporters questions to Lookstein were prompted by the JDL statement it would demonstrate against the Hanafi Moslems.
In a strong endorsement of the President personally and for his policies. Lookstein strongly denied that there is widespread concern within the American Jewish community over Carter’s religious convictions. The rabbi said the President has shown high principle and moral persuasion in his tenure at the White House.
In their talk with Vance, which was originally scheduled for a half hour, the delegation expressed dismay at the new wave of persecution of Soviet Jews that culminated recently in the Soviet decision to bar the importation of matzohs for Passover.
On the Middle East, the SCA representatives welcomed Carter’s March 8 statement that he considers the U.S. relationship with Israel “to be an equal partnership that has derived for our country and for the cause of freedom tremendous benefits.” The delegation expressed its special concern “about the future of Jerusalem.” While any settlement, they stressed, must take account of the interests of the three great world religions, a re-partition of Jerusalem would be “clearly unacceptable.”
Discussion also included U.S. policy toward the Third World, alleviation of world hunger, U.S. relations with the United Nations and strategic arms limitations. The delegation recommended that the U.S. should withhold payment to UN agencies or programs which “are politically distorted, without damaging programs and institutions which deal constructively with global interdependence problems.”
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