State Dept. Official Says Decline in Soviet Jewish Emigration is Not Due to U.S. Anti-soviet Rhetori

A State Department official rejected the argument that the Reagan Administration’s anti-Soviet rhetoric is partially responsible for the decrease in the emigration of Soviet Jews.

“You don’t help Soviet Jewry by being quiet or toning down criticism or refusing to say exactly what is happening to them, ” Elliott Abrams, Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs declared. “If they are going to tell lies about Jews, as they do every day, let all Jews and let all Americans respond by very loudly telling the truth about them.”

Abrams spoke yesterday at a human rights session at the annual three-day leadership conference of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ) which began Monday night at the Ramada Renaissance Hotel. He was introduced by Stanley Lowell of New York, a former chairman of the NCSJ, who noted that during the first three months of this year only 306 Soviet Jews emigrated.

Lowell said that when a delegation of former NCSJ chairman met with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Debrynin two years ago, he said that emigration would only improve when relations between the USSR and the U.S. improved, Lowell blamed the deterioration in relations on the “harsh or undiplomatic words” used by the Reagan Administration against the Soviet Union which he said feeds the “mutual paranoia” of the leaders of both countries.

THE ‘CHATTEL’ FACTOR IN EMIGRATION

But Abrams said that decreased emigration began in 1979 during the Carter Administration which he said had been reluctant “to go public” with criticism of the Soviet Union. He said the Soviet Union considers the emigration of Jews and others as “chattel” to be used to trade for objectives which they want from the West. He said emigration began dropping in 1979 when the Soviets realized they would not get the SALT II treaty ratified, they would not get trade benefits in the U. S, and the invasion of Afghanistan turned public opinion against the USSR.

But Abrams said the Soviets are “conscious of their image” abroad and “we can use their concern for public opinion to pressure them and embarrass them into more civilized behavior,” improving human rights and increasing emigration.

Abrams was critical that the European countries have not made human rights in the Soviet Union a major concern. William Korey, director of International Policy Research for B’nai B’rith International, in discussing the Madrid conference on the Helsinki accords, also said the European countries seem willing to agree to Soviet pressure for a conference on disarmament “without regard to an adequate quid pro quo. It suggests that human rights may be less important to them (the Europeans) than security considerations.”

At another session yesterday, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D. Mass.) noted that the Soviet Jewry movement is now in a “time of great difficulty,” He talked of the courage of Soviet Jewish refuseniks with whom he met on visits to the Soviet Union in 1974 and 1978 and who face day to day harassment, “Can we have any less in our own effort, in our own determination to continue this struggle?” he declared.