Three national Jewish leaders, two of them rabbis, and two Jewish youth leaders who identified themselves as Orthodox, took unequivocal positions at the press conference here today of endorsement of the reelection of President Nixon. The press conference, at the Overseas Press Club, was organized by the Committee for the Re-Election of President Nixon which has a Jewish section.
The three leaders were Dr. William Wexler of Savannah, Ga., chairman of the World Conference of Jewish Organizations and chairman of the B’nai B’rith International Council; Rabbi Herschel Schachter of New York, past chairman of the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry and past chairman of the Religious Zionists of America, an Orthodox group; and Rabbi Seymour Siegel of New York, president of the Jewish Rights Council and a faculty member of the (Conservative) Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
The younger participants were Rabbi David Luchins of New York, chairman of Jewish Youth for Humphrey and director of communal relations for the National Council of Synagogue Youth; and Sue Schreiner of Lakewood, N.J. co-chairman of Jewish Youth for Humphrey and past president of the New Jersey region of NCSY, the youth branch of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. The five participants were introduced by Mrs. Rita Hauser, co-chairman of the Committee for Nixon’s Re-Election and former US representative on the United Nations Human Rights Commission on a Nixon appointment.
Dr. Wexler said “we call ourselves the Concerned Citizens for the Re-Election of President Nixon committee,” which he said was being presently formed. He said “Its activities and force will be felt in every state.” He stressed that “I speak for myself. My interest is in international affairs and human rights.” He said he had met President Nixon on many occasions, finding him “friendly and accessible.” He added he “recently” visited the President on behalf of Soviet Jews, declaring that “I trust him implicitly and completely. He has been a man of his word and I will do all in my power to help him get re-elected.”
Dr. Wexler said he was opposed to reduction of United States defense forces because the US must “negotiate from a position of strength.” He called Mr. Nixon’s visit to China and the Soviet Union the beginning of “a thaw in the cold war.” He praised Nixon’s record on Israel, declaring the President had shown his determination for the posture of deterrence which is Israel’s policy. He said the President had been responsible for aid to Israel in all forms since his election in the amount of $1.25 billion, and said this was a record not surpassed by any other national leader.
Rabbi Schachter, citing his combat service in Europe in World War II, said he felt “committed as an American and as a Jew” to assist Nixon’s re-election. He said he had discussed with the President domestic problems affecting American Jews, the status of Jews in Russia and the security of Israel. He said in these conversations, he had found in the President “a keen awareness and a thorough knowledge of the Issues and their implications, as well as a genuine determination to seek proper solutions to these often vexing and complicated matters.”
He said he would vote for Nixon because he had “acted forthrightly and courageously in support of those views held by the overwhelming majority of Americans of the Jewish faith and of all faiths.” Asked about his views on the candidacy of Sen. George McGovern, Rabbi Schachter replied that on matters of foreign affairs. Sen. McGovern has “given us a lot of double talk.”
Rabbi Siegel said that though he had been a life-long Democrat, he was urging his fellow-citizens this year to vote for Mr. Nixon. He said the President had “correctly determined that a strong and secure Israel is the best insurance policy against an outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East.” He added that, “unlike his opponent, Mr. Nixon understands that in today’s world, it is necessary to negotiate from a position of strength.” He also praised Nixon’s domestic policies.
Rabbi Luchins said most of the young people in the Jewish community who had worked for Humphrey’s candidacy would now be working for President Nixon. He said that “as Americans, as Democrats or as Jews, we cannot support the candidacy of Mc-Govern,” whose record, he asserted, had “lack of consistency.” He added that McGovern’s “record of indecision in general and concerning Israel and domestic Jewish civil rights in particular deeply concerns us.” He said he was “alarmed by McGovern’s insensitivity to the needs and feelings of the Jewish community.” Miss Schreiner said she had worked for Humphrey but that now, she “and hundreds of other Jewish youths who worked in the Humphrey campaign find ourselves with no alternative” but to work for Mr. Nixon.
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