Special JTA Analysis Where Do We Go from Here on Soviet Jewry?

With President Nixon having “mentioned the problem” of Soviet Jewry at the Moscow summit conference, those concerned with that problem must be asking what happens next? And, where do we go from here? Before answers to these questions can be attempted, more information is needed on this aspect of the summit. Is the “mention” a part of the official record of the “summit that ultimately must be made public under our democratic political system? What did the President actually say? Who were the other Americans present when the President made his “mention” and did any of them speak on the subject? In what general context in the conference was the topic “mentioned?” Was the “mention” part of a discussion on the fate of Baltic states and other areas under Soviet control?

In mentioning it, did the President make the Jewry issue a part of a presentation that included aspects such as the Soviet pledge to the United Nations that it will allow freedom of emigration to all persons? Did any other member of the Presidential party, notably Secretary of State William P. Rogers or advisor Henry Kissinger, bring up the Soviet Jewry issue in any other forum at the summit? And, if so, are those presentations on the record?

ISSUE OF SOVIET JEWRY IN DARK

Without definitive information on these and probably other points that analysts will seek in the coming days, the issue of Soviet Jewry is under a heavy cloud in relation to the summit. It must be obvious to the President and his aides that this information cannot be held back for long. It is pertinent to ask whether disclosure must actually await Congressional questioning.

To help put the matter in perspective, following is a summary of the more important statements made immediately before Prof. Kissinger’s last words on the matter in Kiev on the night of May 30.

After their 70 minute talk with Secretary Rogers in his office a fortnight before the Moscow summit, Jewish representatives Max Fisher, Jacob Stein and Richard Maass said that the matter would be handled in “an appropriate way” at the summit and that they were completely satisfied with their meetings with Rogers. On the night before his departure for the summit trip, President Nixon told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at his reception for the press at the White House that “we will not let you down.” This was his response to the JTA statement: “The Jewish community is going to be proud of you.”

Earlier on the same day. Secretary Rogers, at a news conference, said the American government shared the concern of the American Jewish community about the Soviet Jews. In Salzburg on the day before the Presidential party left for Moscow, Prof. Kissinger told the press that the President would look for an opportunity to bring it up at the summit. In Kiev, Dr. Kissinger pronounced the last American official words on the Jewish issue to date. Following is the text of the questions and answers from the transcript;

KISSINGER: ‘COMPLEX ISSUE’

“Q. Dr. Kissinger, can you tell us, please, air, can you expand on what happened with the mention of the Soviet Jewish problem, please sir, in any way, shape. or form? Dr. Kissinger: No, I don’t go into detail of any of these things except to repeat again what I said before: this is a particularly complex issue to raise in a country that is bound to consider it an internal problem.

“Q. I am pursuing an earlier question. We know, of course, that the problem of the Soviet Jews is an internal problem. We know that. But you did say in Salzburg that the President would seek an opportunity to bring it up. And my question is: Did he find an opportunity to bring it up? Dr. Kissinger: Yes. He mentioned the problem.”

“Q. May I quickly follow up this last question? You said he brought up the Jewish question. Did he bring it up with Brezhnev? Dr. Kissinger: I don’t want to go into anything further on that question. The Soviet leaders are aware of our position on the problem.”

This then is the record and the questions that flow from it. Whether the President did justice to the appeals from millions of American citizens of all faiths and most political persuasions; from the legislatures and governors of most states; from the Congress itself, is uncertain but “mention” can hardly be commensurate with the outpourings of appeals to the White House, No moral issue is an “internal” matter.

Pressures undoubtedly will be exerted, and soon, on the White House for more information. Demands also will be made for precise Presidential attitudes on whether the European Security Conference now being readied as a result of the summit conference will put a formal and final seal of silence and frustration on the appeals by and for Jews who wish and must leave the Soviet Union if they are to remain Jewish. Not only Jews, but all Americans must know and they will want to know soon, just what was said in those long hours of discussion in the Kremlin.