City Council President, Paul O’Dwyer, and Manhattan Borough President, Percy Sutton, said Friday that Jews in the Soviet Union, faced with a marked upsurge in anti-Semitism, look to the United States as their principal hope for an end to emigration barriers. At the same time, O’Dwyer and Sutton declared that the Russians are “down right paranoic” on the subject of Israel, and are conducting a relentless propaganda campaign that blames Israel for the October war in the Middle East.
The two, who visited the USSR last month, made their observations at a news conference in the former’s office at City Hall, where they were joined by Stanley H. Lowell, chairman, and other officials of the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry. Lowell commended the two public officials for their deep and abiding interest in the well being of Soviet Jews and others deprived of their human rights.
In a report on their trip, which has been submitted to the Conference, O’Dwyer and Sutton made the following observations: The Soviet Union is a major source of propaganda in the United States which condemns Zionism and blames the October war on Israel; the list of publications in the USSR that are devoted mainly to an anti-Semitic theme has increased by 25 percent in the last few years; and the Soviet press is trying to “camouflage” the recent “Jackson Amendment” action taken by the House of Representatives to bar favored nation treatment to the USSR until all barriers are lifted and free emigration is permitted of Jews to Israel.
Despite this camouflaging action by the Soviet press, the Soviet Jewish population is aware of the firm stand of the United States on this issue and expressed to O’Dwyer and Sutton the hope that the U.S. Senate would soon follow the lead of the House of Representatives in enacting the so-called Jackson Amendment, the city officials said.
O’Dwyer and Sutton commented that “Soviet Jews awaiting visas to depart the Soviet Union for Israel have placed their hopes on what the people of the United States can do for them in this and other ways. The Soviet Jews have little faith in their own ability to effectively help themselves from inside Russia. While they are very courageous and a source of pride to us they are also realistic.”
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