Mrs. William A. Becker, a former president of the Daughters of the American Revolution and chairman of the advisory committee of the “Women’s Patriotic Conference on National Defense,” refused to apologize for presenting to the parley Joseph P. Kamp who delivered an anti-Semitic address at the conference. The protest was made, after Kamp spoke, by representatives of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Jewish War Veterans who were among the 2,000 delegates of 35 national organizations which participated.
Although they were not given an opportunity to reply from the platform to Kamp’s attack on the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League, the J.W.V. women were told by Mrs. Becker that she might remove a portion of Kamp’s remarks from the record of the meeting but that she would neither repudiate the speaker nor apologize in anyway for his appearance.
A spokesman for the J.W.V. auxiliary said after the conference closed that the J.W.V. would continue participation in the annual conferences. The J.W.V. sponsored a resolution against Communism which was adopted. Another decision of the conference was aimed against the United Nations Convention on Genocide and Human Rights which was condemned as subversive.
Lt. Comdr. Vincent W. Hartnett, who described the “Red Star over the show business,” named a number of Jews in a McCarthy-like attack on show people. Major Racey Jordan, who is reported to have made anti-Jewish remarks before meetings in various cities, spoke to the women. Son. Joseph R. McCarthy, who is known for his aid to Nazi war criminals, was a featured speaker and received a tremendous ovations.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
