Aj Committee Leader Urges Nixon to Press Issue of Soviet Jews at Summit

Philip E. Hoffman, president of the American Jewish Committee, called on President Nixon to press the issue of the plight of Soviet Jewry during his meeting with Soviet leaders later this month. In his presidential address to the AJ Committee’s 66th annual dinner, he noted that although 22,000 Jews had emigrated from the Soviet Union since the beginning of last year, there were 70,000 more who have applied for exit visas who have not yet been granted the right to leave.

“We are making every possible effort.” Hoffman declared, “to keep those doors open. We will continue and intensify our efforts both to release from bondage those who wish to leave and to help those who remain to live as Jews within the Soviet Union, free from oppression,” Discussing the Middle East, Hoffman said, Israel must be prepared and able to repel attacks from her enemies. “It is indeed gratifying that there is every evidence that our government is fully understanding of both the opportunities and the dangers in the current situation — not alone for Israel but also for the United States,” he added.

Finally, he called on the US Senate to ratify the Genocide Convention, approval of which was recently voted by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “It behooves all humanity to do everything in our power to insure that our United States Senate affirms this country’s support for the principles of international law and morality which must prevail If man is to prevail,” he stated. Hoffman was re-elected president of the AJCommittee, his fourth term. Richard Maass, chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, was elected chairman of its Executive Council. Max M. Fisher, Detroit industrialist who served for the past four years as chairman of the Executive Council, was named honorary chairman of the Council.

A budget of $875,000 was approved in Jerusalem to build more synagogues and mikvahs.