ABSTRACT
In a practical vein, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) leadership perceived the political need, if it was to survive as the prominent spokesman for American Jewry, to concern itself with problems that were of burning interest to the majority of the American-Jewish community. The organization provided information on the complex aspects of the Russian issue and the literacy test to numerous Congressmen, and it rewarded certain of them by reprinting and distributing speeches favorable to the AJC's positions. The organization depended heavily upon its national network of contacts, not for the purpose of flooding congressmen with anti-Russian and anti-literacy test letters but to exploit personal connections between Congressmen and their influential Jewish and non-Jewish constituents. Thus it is clear that the leaders of the AJC were deeply committed to changing the course of the United States' relations with Russia as well as to defeating the literacy test.
