President Bush is expected to raise the difficulties Jews in the Soviet Union continue to undergo when he meets with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow this week.
Brent Scowcroft, Bush’s national security adviser, assured a group of Jewish leaders at the White House on Friday that Bush will raise the issue as he has in the past, said Shoshana Cardin, head of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.
Other groups represented at the meeting were the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
Cardin, who led the delegation, said the group thanked the Bush administration for its “unwavering support and advocacy for Soviet Jewry” which has led to thousands of Soviet Jews emigrating to Israel.
But she told Scowcroft there are still more than 200 families that have been denied exit visas. She said that the time limit for the possession of “state secrets” is still not limited to five years and that there are still insufficient mechanisms in place to appeal the denial of exit visas based either on “state secrets” grounds or under the “poor relative” provision.
The latter provision allows for an exit-visa application to be denied if an applicant’s relative fails to sign a financial obligation waiver.
In addition, the group pointed out that OVIR, the Soviet emigration office, is understaffed and only 18,000 Jews have been able to emigrate to the United States during the current fiscal year which ends Sept. 30, although U.S. law allows 40,000 to enter the United States annually.
Cardin said the group also complained that Gorbachev has publicly denounced increasing anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union.
The delegation also pointed out that the Vaad, the new Soviet Jewish umbrella organization, has not been officially registered by the Kremlin. It has been applying since March 1990.
The Jewish leaders also urged that when Bush goes to Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine, he visit Babi Yar, the site outside the city where 33,000 Jews were murdered by the German army 50 years ago.
Cardin, who is also chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said the group urged the administration to support, as a humanitarian gesture, Israel’s request for a U.S. guarantee of a $10 billion loan over five years to help settle Soviet and Ethiopian Jews. She said Scowcroft expressed sympathy but gave no indication whether the administration would approve it when Israel officially requests the guarantee in September.
On another matter, Scowcroft expressed appreciation for the support by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry for a one-year waiver of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment which links U.S. most-favored-nation trade benefits for the Soviet Union with increased emigration.
Cardin stressed that the National Conference will continue to monitor the Soviet Union’s compliance with emigration procedures.
Before Bush can waive Jackson-Vanik, Congress must ratify the trade agreement signed by Bush and Gorbachev at their summit in Washington in June 1990.
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