Rep. Charles A, Vanik (D.Ohio).co-sponsor of the Mills-Vanik amendment linking most favored nation trade benefits to the Soviet Union with the removal of emigration restrictions, said last night there can be no delay or compromise in adopting the legislation.
Addressing 500 Zionist and communal leaders at the installation meeting of Bnai Zion the American Fraternal Zionist organization, at the Hilton Hotel, Vanik said he has always supported detente and East-West trade. But he said he would like to see the United States for the first time get something back for its aid by negotiating. “a little bit of humanity, a little bit of decency.”
Vanik said that 285 members of Congress have agreed that as a condition of granting most favored nation status, the President must first find that there is no discrimination in emigration Noting that there “are great forces of expediency who would like to have us compromise,” Vanik said “we cannot relax on this language.”
The Cleveland Congressman also criticized using taxpayers’ funds to subsidize low interest rates for American companies negotiating trade deals with the Soviet Union. Noting that he was a third generation American of Czech descent, Vanik said the Mille-Vanik Amendment and its companion bill in the Senate, the Jackson Amendment, is an “opening wedge” to provide humane and decent treatment by the Soviet Union “not only for Jews, but for all humanity.”
New York State Supreme Court Justice Abraham J. Multer was installed as president of the 93-year-old organization. Rabbi William Berkowitz, chairman of the New York Board of Rabbis was installed into the newly-created post of chairman of the administration committee.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
