Jewish Leaders Attend Pentagon Parley on Religtous Needs of U.S. Army in Korea

A delegation of 10 leaders of the National Jewish Welfare Board, headed by Irving Edison, president of the organization, today participated in a special conference in the Pontagon Building called by Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson to consider plans for religious and welfare activities among the U.S. armed forces now engaged in the Korean war.

Other organizations invited to participate in the conference were the Young Men’s Christian Association and the National Catholic Community Service. The three agencies compose the Associate Services for the Armed Forces (ASAF) which was organized following the termination of the USO, which provided religious, welfare and recreatlonal services for members of the U.S. armed forces during World War II.

Addressing the representatives of the three organizations, Secretary Johnson and high-ranking officials in the armed forces gave a first-hand picture of the urgent need for serving the religious and morale requirements of American officers and soldiers engaged in the Korean battle. Mr. Johnson emphasized that the Department of Defense “is now looking more than ever to ASAF to help provide supplementary assistance to communities working on behalf of the spiritual and morale needs of men and women in uniform.”

The Jewish Welfare Board delegation was composed of Mr. Edison, of St. Louis; Joseph D. Kaufman, Washington, D.C., Josiah E. Brill, Minneapolis; Henry Meyers, Detroit; Samuel Daroff, Philadelphia; Walter E. Heller, San Francisco; Abe Goldstein, Atlanta; Sam Abramson, Des Moines; Isador Shifrin, Cincinnati; and Abraham Feitelberg, director of J.W.B.’s Armed Services Division.

JEWISH CHAPLAIN GOING TO KOREA; FIRST JEWISH CASUALTY REPORTED

Following the Pentagon conference, it was announced that lay and professional leaders of the three agencies and ASAF have begun a series of conferences in New York to determine ways and means of bringing present programs up to personnel and budget strongth immediately and for the opening of additional facilities as needed. The present program of ASAF includes 80 clubs in communities near armed forces concentrations. Cverseas, ASAF will support 12 operations.

Chaplain Oscar M. Lifshutz, who has been stationed with a U.S. infantry division at Fort Lewis, Washington, will be the division’s Jewish chaplain when it leaves for Kores, it was announced by the J.W.B. When he reaches the Far East he will find on active duty there two other Jewish chaplains–Chaplains Meyer Goldman and Joseph B. Mussing. Chaplain Lifshutz, who is a graduate of the Hebrew Theological College of Chicago, was on duty with the U.S. occupation forces in Austria before receiving his regular army commission in 1947.

The Jewish Welfare Board also announced today that the first Jewish casualty among the American armed forces in Korea is Private First Class Bruce Braverman of New York. He enlisted two years ago at the age of 18 after his graduation from high school and was serving with the infantry. The J.W.B. this week resumed the compilation of Jewish war records and related functions traditionally assigned to it by the Jewish community.