Stein Urges ‘reformulation’ of Jackson Amendment to Aid Both Detente and USSR Emigration Policy

A national Jewish leader called today on Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and Sen. Henry M. Jackson (D.Wash.), to resolve their differences over the Administration’s foreign trade bill “in a way that would induce the USSR to relax its emigration procedures without Jeopardizing U.S.-Soviet detente or endangering recent gains in the movement of Soviet Jews to Israel.” Jacob Stein, past chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, urged “reformulation” of the Jackson Amendment, which as now drafted would deny tariff relief and trade credits to the Soviet Union unless it permits free emigration for all Soviet citizens.

“Let us open the channels of trade between our two countries as a means of strengthening detente,” Stein said. “But let us make the continuation of such trade benefits conditional on further progress in the USSR toward the principle of unrestricted emigration, free of harassment.” Stein, who is also the honorary president of the United Synagogue of America, spoke at a breakfast in the Brooklyn Jewish Center honoring Benjamin Markowe, president of the Center.

“The gains we have made in the effort to increase emigration from the USSR have been significant,” Stein said, adding: “Our goal must be to provide a climate that will permit still greater numbers of Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union.” In 1971. he said, approximately 15,000 Soviet Jews were granted exit visas. That number increased to 32,000 in 1972 and 35.000 last year. Rather than imperil these gains by an all-or-nothing demand on the Soviet Union,” Stein said, “there should be a reformulation of the Jackson Amendment that would offer the Kremlin an incentive to increase the number of exit visas granted.”

He continued: “The incentive would be American trade benefits, which would be revised periodically on the basis of a continuous monitoring of Soviet policies. if the emigration statistics continue to rise and the harassment of would-be emigrants eases, the trade benefits we extend to the Russians would continue without interruption.” But if the Soviets cut back on emigration and step up their campaign of intimidation against those who seek to leave, “American trade benefits would be halted,” Stein said. “Only through this kind of carrot-and-stick approach can American efforts to liberalize Soviet emigration policies be effective.”