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- ^ *. At the GeneraLAssembly North American Jewry is coming of a< by Murray Zuckoff WASHINGTON (JTA)—North American Jewry has begun to come of age politically. But this develop ment is being accompanied by birth pangs of emerging new perceptions Jews have of themselves in the political process and the agenda they should be setting for themselves on the American political scene to transform their potential power into actual power. American Jews are attempting to determine where to go from here and how to shift gears in moving from what was a traditionally monolithic single-issue community focusing on Israel to a multi-issue community involved in broad and diverse public policy issues on the American scene, in addition to continuing concern for Israel. More than ever before, Jews are becoming multi-issue oriented. They are beginning to perceive themselves and are being perceived by others as more than a group of Americans who call themselves Jews, worship in synagogues rather than in churches, and are particularly supportive of Israel. American Jews are also moving away from their traditional identi fication with and support of the Democratic Party and political liberalism and are beginning to find a home in the Republican Party and political conservatism. Jews are increasingly voting on issues rather than party labels and personalities. These developments were dealt with at a plenary session at the 54th General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations, attended by some 3,000 Jewish communal leaders from the United States and Canada. The session was titled “The Coming of Age of North American Jewry: A Political Affirmation,” and was also the theme of the assembly, which ended Sunday. The speakers at the session— Kenneth Bialkin, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and national chairman of the Anti- Defamation League of B’nai B’rith; Howard Friedman, president of the American Jewish Committee; and Theodore Mann, president of the American Jewish Congress- agreed that American Jews are exerting greater power in the political arena because they are learning how to maximize their political participation and input on diverse issues of vital concern not only to Jews but to all Americans. As a result, many more Americans are supporting Jews on issues of vital concern to Jews as Jews. “It is not organized support I am talking about,” Mann said. “It is simply Kenneth Bialkin we are out there, because we are integrated into the life of the American community, and because we feel as we do.” He pointed out that he has been “preaching to Jewish audiences that until they knew deep in their gut that America is not Western Europe, they would have no real impact upon American society; that until we truly believed we were not guests in just another Christian country, we would be unable and unwilling to exercise political power we have been guaranteed in this American society.” Mann observed that the Jewish community has come a long way from the 1930s and 1940s, when a potentially powerful Jewish com munity was unable to translate that power into real power “at the time of our people’s very greatest need.” He noted that it is not possible to pinpoint the time “when most American Jews realized that the roof would not fall in if they vigorously exercised their political power” and “realized that in America a vote is a vote is a vote.” But Mann warned that Jewish power—expressed through involve ment in organizations in which they work, through Jewish groups with which they affiliate, and through the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and through Political Action Committees (PACs) Cancellation The American Jewish Com mittee meeting with Charles Silberman, scheduled for 8:15 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26, at Ahavath Achim synagogue, has been cancelled due to his illness. The meeting will be rescheduled after the first of the year. Howard Friedman —can prove to be a danger if it is exercised as a single-issue con stituency. It is one thing for Jews to submit to their congressmen a list of demands on various issues and for congress men to support demands on Soviet Jewry and Israel but not necessarily on other issues, because “that is how it works in a pluralistic society,” Mann said. by Joseph Polakoff TSI’s Washington correspondent WASHINGTON—Irina Grivnina, a small, pale, gray-haired Jewish woman who was allowed to leave the Soviet Union and live in Holland at the end of October, singlehandedly dimmed the Soviet propaganda blitz in the two days before the Reagan-Gorbachev summit began in Geneva. Grivnina, who hadobtained access to the summit events because she is accredited to the Dutch newspaper Elsevier, forced the Soviet’s foreign ministry spokesman Vladimir Lomeiko to move his press briefing in an auditorium jammed with journalists to a small conference room at the International Press Center. Earlier she had harpooned Soviet spokesmen with questions on human rights at a news conference on arms control and cried out to Gorbachev upon his arrival in Geneva about human rights and freedom for Nobel Prize laureate Andrei Sacharov. Swiss authorities revoked Grivnina’s press credentials after the auditorium episode and at the insistence of Soviet authorities. By then Soviet and American authorities had arranged a complete news black out on the summit. Theodore Mann “But it is quite another thing to seek out legislators who oppose the point of view of the vast majority of American Jews on all interests except Israel, and provide them with substantial financial support. “In the first case, the legislator is telling us that he agrees with us in part but regrettably not on everything. In the second case, we are telling the legislator to give us what we Grivnina, who was identified here by the State Department and the Washington offices of both the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jewry, was a leading member of a group in the Soviet Union that monitored Soviet abuses of psychia tric methods against political and ideological non-conformists. She served 13 months in prison and an additional 20 months in internal exile before she was allowed to emigrate to the Netherlands with her husband and two children. When Lomeiko was beginning his remarks, a Swiss security officer asked Grivnina to depart. While she was demanding to know why, cameramen and journalists focused attention on her. Lomeiko shouted to Western newsmen not to pay attention to her “provocation” and Soviet newsmen yelled, “out, out.” “Lomeiko stormed out of the hall to hold his briefing in a small conference room,” the Washington Post reported. “Once again, Soviet efforts to match Western-style press briefings were upset by a Soviet dissident.” The Associated Press reported, “Lomeiko asked the woman several times to be quiet, but she continued to talk to journalists who crowded around her. After several minutes, want for Israel, that is th C test, we don’t really car anything else. That's not a Jews should ever carry. It i; to us to be so perceived, a ( false message—it simply is n* Friedman also emphasri a single-issue community effective in the political pr the public perceives that the not grounded in broader such as defending and extending democracy and seeking ways to maintain a world free of totali tarianism. “Response to interests of Jews is not based on Jewish political power but on Jewish involvement in general issues,” Friedman said. Jewish power is not based on their voting power nor on contributions to political candi dates but on the ability to “dip into the currents” of general political power and into issues that concern and affect Americans in general. The new reality of Jewish political activity, he said, is that “there is a growing movement of an honest difference of approach to issues.” See Jewry, page 23. Lomeiko said the journalists seemed more interested in talking to the woman, so he picked up his briefing papers and abruptly left the room.” United Press International re ported that when Grivnina refused to leave the auditorium, “Lomeiko snapped, ‘this lady is in a state of euphoria. To listen to her is useless. Do you wish to listen to her or to me?’ Some reporter yelled at the cameramen around Grivnina to sit down and allow Lomeiko to speak but the meeting disintegrated into pandemonium as Lomeiko, all but shouting, said ‘You can’t listen to two speakers at the same time.’ He picked up his briefing papers and stalked out, saying, ‘Thank you for your attention.’” When Grivnina persisted in aiming questions at Gorbachev, Eugeny Velikhov, vice president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, who happened later to be a guest on ABC’s “This Week with David Brinkley,” demanded “do we have to call the militia to remove this lady?” The Baltimore Sun said that when “Mrs. Grivnina pressed the case of a dissident friend whom she said was dying in a detention camp, Mr. Velikhov angrily replied, ‘I don’t have friends in your circle of friends.’” Jewish woman’s efforts stymie Soviet PR blitz before summit c -. c. L. — r"