Blumberg Says Carter’s Election Will Be Good for the Jewish People

David Blumberg, international president of B’nai B’rith, said here today that the election of Jimmy Carter was going to be “good for the Jewish people” despite initial reservations expressed by some American Jews and Israelis over Carter’s views on Israel and his religious background.

Blumberg, who is attending a meeting of the B’nai B’rith International Council Executive in London, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that when Carter began his campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination, many people were wary of his religious commitments as a Southern Baptist and there was concern that his inner circle of advisors lacked expertise. But as Carter campaigned around the country, he impressed people as a man of integrity with experience in government.

ANXIETIES WERE DISPELLED

He said he was aware that certain prominent Israelis apparently had hoped for a Republican

Blumberg said there were no doubts about the capability of Carter’s principal foreign policy advisors–Prof. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Cyrus Vance. Vance and Brzezinski have been mentioned by some observers as possible choices for Secretary of State in the Carter Administration. Blumberg described Brzezinski as “one of the most knowledgeable men” in the fields of defense and foreign policy who “speaks in the manner we Jews like.”

The implications of Carter’s victory was one of the subjects raised at the two-day B’nai B’rith meeting here attended by representatives from the U.S., Britain, Western Europe, Israel and Australia. Ricardo Holzer, chairman of the Internationalist Council’s Executive and Dr. William Korey, director of the Council, participated.