The White House has a private memorandum from a knowledgeable non-government source saying that Soviet Jews feel their position has worsened as a result of President Nixon’s Moscow summit visit last May, the Los Angeles Times reported today.
Times reporter Richard Reston said he obtained a copy of the memorandum, prepared by Leonard W. Schroeter, a Seattle attorney who visited Jews in Russia following the Nixon trip. The memorandum was sent to Leonard Garment, the President’s top assistant on minority questions. Garment acknowledged having received it but refused to comment on its content, Reston said.
According to Reston, the memo states that “It is the conviction of the Soviet Jewish leadership that the President’s trip was a disaster for them. They expressed the opinion that the United States seemed more interested in selling corn than in protecting human rights and individual freedom.”
Reston described Schroeter as an employe of the Israeli Ministry of Justice from 1970 until earlier this year. He said the Israel Embassy in Washington received and studied a copy of the Schroeter memo and confirmed that everything Schroeter stated “is correct” and that he “saw the right people.”
According to Reston, Schroeter spoke to Soviet Jewish leaders and intellectual dissidents in Moscow, Leningrad, Minsk and Riga, and was informed that since the Nixon trip conditions have worsened for Jews and even harsher measures are feared for the future.
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