Need for New Approach to Programs for Jewish Life Stressed at A.J.C. Conference

The need of the American Jewish Committee to consider afresh its present approach to and program for Jewish life was emphasized here last night by Alan M. Stroock, vice-president of the organization, in addressing the closing session of the annual meeting of the Committee.

Mr. Stroock said that this need resulted from the fact that Jews have entered a new era in which their former centers of cultural and spiritual life, scattered over two continents, have been replaced by two dominant communities–the United States and Israel.

“The future program of the American Jewish Committee,” Mr. Stroock said, “must embrace a developed philosophy of Jewish life which expressed the innermost aspirations of the Jewish community and which is able to convert these aspirations into convictions, and a guide for living for American Jews. It must provide a positive approach for making this philosophy known to the Jewish community in contrast with self-defeating philosophies of one type or another.”

Irving M. Engel, who was reelected chairman of the A.J.C. executive committee, told the delegates that the American Jewish Committee succeeded in securing the postponement of the expulsion of 2,000 Iraqi Jews from Iran. “We have hopes that the expulsion order will be rescinded,” he said. He reported that the dangers to Jews in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria have now subsided. Reviewing the Jewish situation in Germany, Mr. Engel declared that while the American Jewish Committee is concerned with the security and citizenship rights of the 20,000 Jews who are likely to remain in Germany after the displaced persons camps are closed there, it is even more vitally concerned about the problem of democratizing Germany. “Without some change in the American occupation program,” he said, “Germany may again become a threat to peace and a source of totalitarian and anti-Semitic propaganda.”

In addition to reelecting Jacob Blaustein as president, the conference elected the following as vice-presidents: Albert H. Lieberman, Philadelphia; Charles W. Morris, Louisville; Nathan M. Ohrtach, New York; Harold Riegelman, New York; Ralph E. Samuel, New York; David Sher, New York; Jesse H. Steinbart, San Francisco; Alan M. Stroock, New York; Frank L. Sulzberger, Chicago; and Dr. John Slawson, New York. Justice Joseph M. Proskaner was reelected honorary president, Senator Herbert H. Lehman and Samuel D. Leidesdorf, honorary vice-presidents, and Herbert B. Ehrmann, of Boston, was elected chairman of the administrative committee.