A call for “new initiatives” by the American Jewish community to prod Soviet action on both Jewish emigration and rights of “hundreds of thousands who will never be able to leave the USSR,” was sounded today at the annual plenary meeting of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council. Stanley H. Lowell, chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, warned the 450 delegates against “letdowns” in their protest campaigns because of passage of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. “It was a major breakthrough, but it has not, as the general public may have been led to believe accomplished the job of accelerating the emigration,” he said.
Moshe Decter, an analyst on Soviet affairs, urged that the Jewish community “get out of its impasse of concentrating only on emigration” and broaden its emphasis to demand full religious, cultural and communal rights for Jews who remain in the USSR. He called the “total and single focus” on emigration an “unnecessary and self-imposed restriction” by the Jewish community.
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.
