Mcgovern Says Nixon Trying to ‘deceive’ Us Jews with ‘false Claim’ of Aiding Soviet Jewry

The Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. George McGovern, today accused President Nixon of trying to deceive American Jews with a “transparent and false claim” of helping the Jews of the Soviet Union. “It is both cynical and oruel of President Nixon’s agent Nelson Rockefeller to claim credit on behalf of the White House for an historic event which belongs to the Jews of the USSR themselves,” the Senator said.

“It is cynical because it has no basis in fact,” he declared. “It is cruel because it holds out a false promise of hope to Soviet Jewry–a promise Richard Nixon is in no position to keep.” McGovern attributed the increased emigration of Soviet Jews to “the heroic determination of Soviet Jews themselves. They have been supported in their demands, their protests and their demonstrations by the public appeals of many governments and millions of men and women of good will around the world,” he said.

McGovern claimed that Rockefeller was seeking “to make political capital for Richard Nixon out of the cry ‘Let My People Go”‘ on the eve of the Republican convention. He said, however, that American Jews would not be deceived “by this attempt by the Republican party to exploit the courage of Soviet Jewry for votes in November.”

On a related topic, McGovern stated that he had been “heartened by recent statements by Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, president of the American Jewish Congress and David Blumberg, president of the B’nai B’rith, repudiating Republican efforts to use Israel as a partisan issue in the 1972 election.” He urged President Nixon and his advisers to place the concerns of Israel and Soviet Jewry above partisanship in the 1972 campaign. “The heroism of Soviet Jewry and the security of the State of Israel are not partisan issues,” he said.