Jewish groups are backing President Clinton’s decision this week to certify Russia in compliance, for the first time, with the terms of the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment.
That determination will exempt Russia from the annual presidential review of its emigration practices that has taken place since Congress adopted the Cold War-era amendment, which denies most-favored-nation trade privileges to countries that do not allow free emigration.
But the State Department will still be required to issue semi-annual reports to determine whether Russia remains in compliance.
Clinton’s decision, conveyed in a letter to Congress on Tuesday, came one day after the National Conference on Soviet Jewry broke with 20 years of policy by issuing a statement urging such a presidential determination.
The president is expected to announce his decision next Monday before meeting at the United Nations with his Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin. The two leaders will return to Washington for a two-day summit later in the week.
The National Conference, the leading agency representing the American Jewish establishment on the issue of “Soviet” Jewry, recommended that Clinton take the step to end the annual review of Russia’s emigration practices in a statement Monday.
“This was not an easy decision, because we’re dealing with people’s lives. But it is the right decision,” said Mark Levin, National Conference executive director. “We did this knowing that it’s always possible that the situations could change. It’s about recognizing progress when progress takes place.”
A MAJOR DEPARTURE FOR THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
Levin hailed Clinton’s decision as “an appropriate step.”
The move, which appears to have broad support, marks a major departure for the Jewish community, which lobbied heavily for the amendment. Sponsored by the late Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-Wash.) and former Rep. Charles Vanik (D-Ohio), it became a major tool in pressuring the Soviet Union to liberalize its emigration practices.
Each year since 1990, the National Conference and other Jewish groups have recommended that the president issue one-year waivers of the amendment’s trade sanctions against first the Soviet Union and later Russia, in recognition of the substantial increase in Jewish emigration that has taken place since former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev first allowed tens of thousands of Jews to leave the country.
But until now, groups monitoring the rights of Russian Jews have insisted that trade benefits for the Soviet Union and its successor states be linked to an annual presidential review of their emigration practices.
Clinton’s determination that Russia is in compliance with Jackson-Vanik does not mean that the National Conference has called for a repeal of Jackson-Vanik. It also does not mean that Russia is being permanently “graduated” from the Jackson-Vanik process.
What it does mean is that the conference — an umbrella body representing 50 national Jewish agencies and more than 300 local federations and community councils — recommended that there no longer must be annual certification that Russia is in compliance with the terms of the amendment, explained Levin.
“The determination does not close the books on the amendment but recognizes that there has been unbelievable change in the way Jews are being treated by the government,” said Richard Wexler, National Conference chairman.
“Under the amendment, a country determined to be in compliance continues to have its emigration policies closely monitored by the United States,” the National Conference noted in its statement.
“Should there be a deterioration of Russia’s emigration policies, the president has the legal authority to revoke the finding of compliance,” it said.
‘JACKSON-VANIK IS FLEXIBLE’
Jerry Goodman, founding director of the National Conference and a current member of its board, said the group’s statement is “a good thing, for two reasons: one, to show that the Jewish community is responsive to changes; and two, that Jackson-Vanik is flexible and can be used to respond to those same changes. This is what the amendment was designed to do.”
It also “supports the president,” he explained. “The president makes the judgment whether they are in compliance, and therefore the responsibility falls in the president’s hands.”
The National Conference statement makes note of the fact that “since 1989, more than 200,000 Jews from Russia have been permitted to emigrate,” mainly to Israel. And in the same time period, the number of so-called “refusenik cases” — Jews refused permission to emigrate — “has been reduced significantly.”
Clinton’s decision and the National Conference statement appear to have broad appeal among Soviet Jewry advocacy groups.
For instance, the Union of Councils, an umbrella body of grass-roots advocacy groups that has often sought more stringent requirements of the Soviet Union and its successor states than the National Conference, is in agreement with the decision despite lingering reservations, including the occurrence of a new refusenik case.
Both groups said that a year-old Russian government panel, the Lavrov Commission, is showing itself to be a dependable instrument for hearing appeals on existing refusenik cases.
“We wanted to try to be able to support the program that Mr. Yeltsin has made, yet we need to make it very clear that he still has a way to go in order to be in full compliance,” said Pamela Braun Cohen, president of the Union of Councils.
But one longtime activist expressed dismay upon learning the decision.
“Even though the number of refuseniks is very low compared to years ago, the battle is not over, and we should not abandon our soldiers in the field,” said Glenn Richter, national coordinator of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. “When you’re so close, you don’t give up.”
The statement issued by the National Conference is directed at Russia, which is considered the successor state to the former Soviet Union, said Levin of the National Conference. “We will deal with each of (the other successor) countries on a case-by-case basis,” he said.
The statement was approved unanimously Monday by the National Conference’s Board of Governors during a telephone conference call.
It reads: “Following an extensive review of the evolution of Russia’s emigration practices and policies, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry concludes that the Russian Federation continues to make significant progress in this area.”
It later adds that “based on these developments,” the National Conference “will recommend and support a presidential determination that Russia is in compliance” with Jackson-Vanik.
Levin said the National Conference took the action “because we believe that it is important to recognize continued progress by the Russian government, and we felt with the upcoming summit, along with the ongoing progress, that this was an appropriate time to make this decision.”
Added Wexler: “Certainly, from all the reports we have received, including our regular contacts with the Vaad — the organization of Russian communities — free emigration from the Russian Republic is a reality.”
(JTA correspondent Matthew Dorf in Washington contributed to this report.)
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.
