ABSTRACT
In the Soviet Union, supporters of internal reform and Jewish activists worked together to secure compliance with this piece of legislation. Faced with this united front, the Kremlin reflexively repressed Jews and dissidents. Beginning in 1975, however, the question of Jewish emigration lost its specificity and became increasingly diluted in a larger battle for human rights in the Soviet Union. Once the movement's targets had ceased resisting its demands—Washington resigned itself to defending the Jews in its dealings with the Kremlin, and Moscow began to open its borders—it lost some of its immediacy. Israel's influence was more apparent at the second World Conference on Soviet Jewry, which took place in February 1976. With the adoption of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, the emigration of Soviet Jews definitively gained a role in US-Soviet relations. Carter consequently made sure the doors of the White House were kept open to the Jewish establishment.
