POLITICS ’88 : CAMPAIGN ’88 : Rabbi to Host Jackson, Jewish Leaders Meeting

A private meeting between the Rev. Jesse Jackson and prominent Los Angeles Jewish leaders, which appeared to be in doubt earlier this week, will take place as scheduled Wednesday, according to Rabbi Allen Freehling of the University Synagogue in Brentwood.

The meeting will not be under the auspices of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, which was part of the negotiations with Jackson at one point.

Freehling said he will issue the invitations and host the meeting, which is set for 8 a.m. Wednesday at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Differences over the format apparently were resolved. Jackson has sought a more informal private meeting. He declined an invitation to appear before a major conference of Jewish organizations in New York prior to the primary there.

Among those invited is Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, a strong critic of Jackson’s policy on Israel and the Middle East.

Freehling said Friday that he expects Jackson to get some tough questions in the meeting but added: “I’d like it to be as well-rounded a group as possible, with the understanding it is to be non-confrontational and non-hostile. We have the opportunity here to do what I think we ought to do, which is open a dialogue.”

Hier and some other Jewish leaders are especially upset at Jackson’s reluctance to criticize the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and Hier contends that if Jackson were President he would “alter” the United States’ longtime support of Israel.