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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 12, 1986 Page 7
Abram denounces Soviet emigration
NEW YORK The Soviet
Union’s newly issued regulations
on emigration were denounced
by Morris B. Abram as “propa
ganda designed to deceive the
West.”
Abram, chairman of the Na
tional Conference on Soviet
Jewry and of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations, told a
news conference:
“The decree of the U.S.S.R.’s
Council of Ministers, issued Nov.
6, offers little hope for an early
rise in emigration from the Soviet
Union, now at its lowest level in
15 years.
“T he decree ignores Soviet
commitments, solemnized in the
Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the Helsinki Accords,
to permit emigration of its citi
zens as a matter of right.
“The decree restricts the con
ventional interpretation of fam
ily ties and thus could be used to
justify still further cutbacks in
the emigration of Soviet Jews to
Israel.
“Soviet affairs specialists and
Jewish leaders with whom 1 have
consulted join me in the conclu
sion that the new Soviet regula
tions, presented by the Kremlin
as easing the process of leaving
the country, were issued not as
the legal basis for increasing
emigration but as a restrictive
measure crafted as propaganda
designed to deceive the West and
silence the growing volume of
international protests against the
cruel policy of the Soviet regime
in matters of Jewish emigration,
culture and religion.” Abram said,
said.
Abram spoke on the eve of his
departure for Vienna, where he
will serve as a public member of
the U.S. delegation to the follow
up conference on the Helsinki
Accords. He will participate in
discussions on “Basket 111” of the
agreement, dealing with human
rights.
“In Vienna,” Abram said, “So
viet representatives will have to
answer for their country’s failure
to comply with the human rights
provisions of the Helsinki Ac
cords.
“The new decree has been pre
pared to meet this criticism, but
NCS J chief to be featured
at Temple anniversary gala
In honor of The Temple’s
12()th Anniversary, Morris B.
Abram will speak at Shabbat
Service on Friday, Dec. 19 at
8:15 p.m. His topic will be “Lib
eration of Soviet Jews: Is it pos
sible? If not now, when?”
Abram is speaking on the oc
casion of the 85th birthday of
Temple member Josephine Hey-
man. Mrs. Heyman’s late hus
band, Herman, was a law partner
of Abram. Friends and family
are honoring Mrs. Heyman’s
birthday by donating a sound
enhancement system for the hear
ing impaired to be used in The
Temple sanctuary.
Abram, a former Temple mem
ber, had an illustrious legal and
civic career while living in At
lanta. He is most noted for chang
ing the county unit election sys
tem with the 1963 Supreme Court
ruling, “One man. One vote.”
In addition to practicing law in
New York City, Abram currently
serves as chairman of the National
Conference on Soviet Jewry and
chairman of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations. He has
served, by presidential appoint
ment, under John Kennedy, Lyn
don Johnson, Jimmy Carter and
Ronald Reagan. He is a past
president of Brandeis University.
An Oneg Shabbat reception
following the service will be
sponsored by Ann and Jay Davis
on the occasion of their daughter
Elizabeth’s Bat Mitzva weekend.
Morris Abram
it offers neither hope nor en
couragement to the hundreds of
Jews who have expressed their
desire to emigrate to Israel,” he
said.
Abram told the news confer
ence, “The new decree makes no
mention of emigration as a right
and thus leaves Soviet authori
ties with absolute power to reject
applications for emigration.
“The new decree spells out no
less than nine reasons for deny
ing requests for emigration, especial
ly a catchall provision that gives
Soviet authorities the right to
reject applications on grounds of
‘insuring the protection of social
order, health or the morals of the
population.’
“The new decree is a codifica
tion of restrictive Soviet practi
ces gradually put into effect since
1979, and confirms the view of
Secretary of State George Shultz
who,in assessing in the U.S.S.R.’s
policy on Jewish emigration last
month, stated: ‘The situation is
bleak and deteriorating.”'
Abram added: “If the Soviet
Union wants to demonstrate a
new and human face to the world
and demonstrate that it lives up
to its solemn international com
mitments, it need only free the
Prisoners of Conscience whom it
has incarcerated for teaching
Hebrew and insisting on the right
to be repatriated to Israel; grant
visas to the thousands of refus-
niks, many of whom have been
waiting for 10 years or more to
emigrate; and start issuing visas
to the hundreds of thousands of
Soviet Jews who have initiated
the emigration procedure by re
questing and receiving invitations
from their relatives in Israel.
“We would dearly like to be
proven wrong in our assessment
of the recent Soviet decree,” Mr.
Abram said. “Let them stop
harassing, intimidating and ar
resting Jewish activists. And let
them let our people go.
“Until that happens, we can
only regard the issuance of the
Nov. 6 regulations as still another
Soviet effort to deceive the West
into relaxing its demands.”
Hadassah drops cigarette ads
Special to The Southern Israelite
Hadassah Magazine, the larg
est special interest publication of
its kind in the United States, will
no longer carry cigarette adver
tising beginning with its January
1987 issue, Rose Goldman, the
magazine’s chairman, has an
nounced.
She said the change in policy
by Hadassah’s executive commit
tee makesthemagazineoneof only
36 consumer magazines in the
nation to refuse advertising for
cigarettes, which have been linked
medically to lung cancer and
other lung and heart diseases.
“For 75 years Hadassah has
been committed to healing and
to the prevention of disease,”
Ms. Goldman said. “The con
tinued presence of cigarette ad
vertising in Hadassah’s national
publication is inconsistent with
the organization’s mission and
philosophy.”
Tobacco companies accounted
for about 20 percent of the publi
cation’s advertising revenues in
1986.
The decision to discontinue
cigarette ads will be revealed to
the magazine’s readers in an un
usual full-page announcement on
the back cover of the January
issue, a space usually filled by
tobacco company advertising.
The change in policy also is
discussed by executive editor Alan
Tigay, who writes in his monthly
column that the magazine’s “un-
enthusiastic acceptance” of the
ads in the past was based on the
position that “people have a right
to smoke, as long as they don't
disturb others,” and that “It fol
lows logically that cigarette
manufacturers have a right to
advertise so long as they do so in
compliance with the laws of the
land.”
Tigay writes that the maga
zine’s readers have grown in
creasingly vocal in recent years
about the “ultimate inconsistency
of an organization dedicated to
good health accepting advertis
ing that, no matter how you look
at it, promotes illness.”
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