Sadat to Meet U.S. Jewish Leaders

A group of Jewish leaders will meet with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt this Friday in Manhattan at the home of Egypt’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Ahmed Abdel Meguid. According to Howard Squadron, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, who will take part in the meeting, about “eight or ten” Jewish leaders will attend. The meeting, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, was requested by the Egyptians.

Among the Jewish leaders scheduled to be at the meeting are, according to Squadron: Max Fisher, chairman of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency; Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress; Frieda Lewis, president of Hadassah; Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations; and Ivan Novick, president of the Zionist Organization of America.

ISSUE OF THE AUTONOMY TALKS

Squadron said that during the meeting, “which will probably not be very long,” the Jewish leaders will make the point that it is important to conclude the autonomy negotiations for the Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza District as soon as possible. “But we are going to tell President Sadat that a speedy autonomy agreement will not be reached if Egypt will insist on resolving the issue of Jerusalem in the context of the autonomy talks,” Squadron said.

The meeting this Friday will be the second Sadat has had with Jewish leaders in the United States. He met for the first time with American Jewish leaders, as a group, after signing the peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

While in New York, Sadat will also meet with United Nations Security Council President Dr. Carlos Ozores Typaldos, will be hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations and will be guest of honor at a reception hosted by Mayor Edward Koch at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.