Lifting of Palestine Embargo Urged at American Jewish Committee 41st Annual Parley

Judge Joseph M. Proskauer was today re-elected president of the American Jewish Committee for a sixth term, as the organization’s 41st annual conference concluded. Jacob Blaustein of Baltimore was re-elected chairman of the executive.

In his annual presidential message delivered to 400 American Jewish leaders ?t the parley, Judge Proskauer called for the lifting of the United States emgargo on arms to Palestine until a United Nations constabulary is created, and the early creation of such a United Nations constabulary. He explained that "responsible Jewish leadership asks for nothing except that the mandate of the United Nations be executed" and that, therefore, American Jews "have a clear right and duty" to urge both the lifting of the embargo and the creation of a United Nations constabulary.

"We have a right and a duty as Americans to represent to our State Department the full import of the violence which 1b spilling human blood in Palestine today," Judge Proskauer insisted, adding: "Thus, we ask of the United Nations the creation under the Security Council of a sufficient constabulary to safeguard against the lawlessness which is impeding the implementation of the decision of the United Nations Assembly.

"We may fairly ask that until such force is created, our government reconsider the embargo which has been placed upon the exportation into Palestine of munitions. Unless and until the United Nations steps into Palestine with a force able to maintain order there and enforce its own decrees, surely the least that can be asked that those who are being threatened with murder by reason of that decree, be not denied the implements with which to defend themselves and defend the action of the United Nations."

He also declared that the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine raises no problem for the American Jew "between our obligations as Americans and as Jews." He stated that there is no issue of "double loyalty," despite the feelings of a small minority of Jews in this country. Judge Proskauer also called for the stamping out of anti-Semitism in America as a solution to the problem of closing the gap in civil liberties "between our principles of freedom and our practice."

OPPOSE ESTABLISHMENT OF PERMANENT AMERICAN JEWISH ASSEMBLY

The delegates affirmed the action taken some months ago by the A.J.C. executive committee in declining to participate in the projected plan to set up an overcall Jewish agency to act as "spokesman for American Jewry." The resolution declared that "the proposed permanent American Jewish Conference or Assembly is not in the best interests of American Jewry."

Judge Phillip Forman, chairman of the A.J.C. Foreign Affairs Committee, told the conference that one of the major problems which American Jewry will face in 1948 is the question of "the security of the 800,000 Jews resident in the Arab and Moslem countries as it is affected by Arab reactions to the partitioning of Palestine." Judge Forman pointed out that the Jews in the Moslem countries "may soon have to be regarded as the new DP’s, and we owe them clear responsibility.

"Representations have been made to our "State Department," he added, "and your diplomatic officers in the Near East have been Instructed to intervene in a ?endly spirit to the governments to which they are accredited as soon as steps ?y be deemed advisable, and not to wait for blood to flow."

GEN. OMAR BRADLEY SCORES DISCRIMINATION AND SOCIAL PREJUDICE

General Omar Bradley, who will succeed General Dwight D. Eisenhower as Chief Staff, told the meeting, that the American tradition of civil rights should be plied, not merely glorified. "Discrimination too often reflects the jaundiced attitudes of too many American people," he said, declaring "there is too often a tragic ?sparity between what we practice and what we preach."

The General assailed "the ugly manifestations of discrimination and social ?e judice (which) sometimes cause us to emulate totalitarian governments In the cur?ilment of liberties to our minority groups." He criticized the denial of equal mutational opportunity for the Negro as contributing to racial discrimination and ?eventing "intelligent utilization of our manpower resources and limiting our purchaser income."

Beside Judge Proskauer and Mr. Blaustein, four new officers were chosen and ?m others re-elected. Re-elected were Herbert H. Lehman, honorary vice-president; Dr. John Slawson, New York, executive vice-president; Herbert B. Ehrmann, ?ston, vice-president; Milton W. King, Washington, vice-president; Fred Lazarus, ?., Cincinnati, vice-president; Ralph E. Samuel, New York, vice-president; Jesse Steinhart, San Francisco, vice-president; Frank L. Sulzterger, Chicago, vice-president; Nathan M. Ohrbach, New York, treasurer; Albert H. Lieberman, Philadelphia, associate treasurer; and Edward A. Norman, New York, secretary.New officers ?osen include Irving M. Engel, New York, chairman of the administrative committee; ?muel D. Leidesdorf, New York, honorary vice-president; David Sher, and Alan M. Stroock both of New York, vice-presidents.

Discussion, leaders and speakers at today’s business sessions of the annual meeting included former Governor Lehman, Sher of New York, Stroock, Letdesdorf, Liebernan, and Rabbi Roland B. Gittlsohn of Rockville Center, L.I., a member of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights.