American Jewish Conference Hits Jewish Labor Committee Withdrawal As Undemocratic

The interim committee of the American Jewish Conference today issued a statement charging the Jewish Labor Committee with acting “in disregard of the democratic principle,” in withdrawing from the conference because of the admittance of the Jewish Peoples Fraternal Order which the labor group claimed is Communist dominated.

Pointing out that the question of admitting the Jewish Peoples Fraternal Order had been approved by the four chief bodies of the conference, the statement said that since the conference “was established as a representative and democratic instrumentality to express the viewpoint of American Jewry,” it could not “enter into a debate with the ideological viewpoint of any of its constituency and cannot permit such considerations to be involved as a ground for disqualification in the conference.”

The interim committee called attention to the fact that long before the decision to admit the Jewish Peoples Fraternal Order, the Jewish Labor Committee had declined to participate in the interim committee and one of its commissions and had isolated itself from the Conference. It urged the Jewish Labor Committee to reconsider its decision “so that both it and its constituent bodies may resume their place in the American Jewish Conference,” stressing that “the needs of world Jewry demand united action by the American Jewish community. This must transcend all other considerations.”