Ncsj Says Rockefeller Statement Confirms Soviet Jewry Discussed at Moscow Summit Conference

The National Conference on Soviet Jewry said today that the statement by Governor Nelson Rockefeller in Jerusalem, “which he subsequently clarified,” confirms our belief that President Nixon did speak with Communist party head Leonid Brezhnev on the subject of Soviet Jewry at their Moscow meeting last May.

Richard Maass, NCSJ chairman, also said that “no information has been made available as to the scope or depth of those conversations” in Moscow. He cited State Department figures that the number of Soviet Jews migrating to Israel and elsewhere during the six months prior to the Nixon Moscow visit indicated an upward trend “to about 3,000 per month. Naturally, we hope that the conversations between President Nixon and Brezhnev will lead to an expansion of emigration for Soviet Jews, as well as a more humane policy towards those Jews who apply to emigrate.”

He said that since President Nixon’s visit, three Jewish activists “have been imprisoned for terms up to three years and at least four are awaiting trial. Soviet policy toward Jewish activists who wish to emigrate to live as Jews is no less harsh than in previous months. The well-publicized harassment and debasement of the internationally-known scientist, Benjamin Levich, is another example of the Soviet policy to punish Soviet Jews who make known their desire to leave the Soviet Union through enforced unemployment and a wide range of hostile social and economic pressures. This has not changed,” he added.

“Although a welcome first step, the present number of Jews who do leave represents only a small fraction of those wishing to leave-both those actually applying and those who are waiting to see what befalls other activists. In any event,” he added, “it would be regrettable, if, in fact, any agreement was made by anyone that limited the number of Jews who wish to leave to a fixed quota, since it would literally doom three-quarters of those now applying.”