Marshall Breger, President Reagan’s special assistant for Jewish affairs, said here today that the support by American Jews of Israel “is good citizenship for America and good citizenship as Americans.”
For the first time in Jewish history, “the Jewish community does not see the law of the state as something other, something to be suffered, but rather some thing to be shaped, “Breger told the 1,000 persons at the opening session of the 25th anniversary policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). He noted that at the White House “we are respectful, not awed, by the extent in which AIPAC and the Jewish community takes up the cudgels of citizenship.”
Breger noted that President Reagan told the Jewish Community Relations Council in New York last Thursday, “Let no one tell you that your support for Israel and your effort on behalf of Soviet Jews are special interest politics. All Americans have a right, and indeed the obligation, to speak out on issues important to them.” (See story, P.I.)
Robert Asher, president of the AIPAC, said the organization has grown to 50,000 members. The three-day conference, which ends Tuesday, is scheduled to hear speeches from, among others, Vice President George Bush tomorrow, and Sens. Robert Dole (R. Kan. ) and Daniel Inouye (D. HI.).
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