A statement made by President Truman during the week-end in which he taxed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower with willingness to accept “the very practice that identified the so-called ‘master race,” and implied that the Republican candidate for President is condoning anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic immigration policies, precipitated a sharp rebuke by Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver following a 45-minute conference which Dr. Silver had with Gen. Eisenhower at his home here.
On the other hand, Dr. Silver was severely criticized today by Congressman Emanuel Celler, Democrat, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who issued a statement declaring that “Rabbi Silver had the right to espouse Gen. Eisenhower’s candidacy, but his action is in bad taste and an affront to Zionists like myself.” He pointed out that “Truman was the first Chief Magistrate of any nation to recognize the infant State of Israel and “engineered millions of grants-in-aid to Israel.”
President Truman’s charges were made in a statement he sent to the Jewish Welfare Board’s National Leadership Mobilization for G.L and Community Services which concluded its sessions today in Washington. The message was read last Friday to the conference by Assistant Secretary of State Howland H. Sargeant. In it the President reviewed immigration policy in the United States, his fight against the McCarran-Walter Immigration, Act, his long-time interest in Jewish affairs and his interest in Israel.
The President’s message was apparently written before Gen. Eisenhower, in a speech Friday night at Newark, condemned the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act. In a speech which President Truman delivered last night in Brooklyn he took note of the fact that Gen. Eisenhower had come out ” at this eleventh hour” for rewriting the McCarran Act. ” I am glad he’s done so, because I welcome support of every American in the fight to get the law changed, ” Mr. Truman said.
Rabbi Silver, in his statement to the press, said that he discussed with Gen. Eisenhower the Truman attack. ” I expressed my feelings of shock that an irresponsible statement of that character could be made,” he declared. ” Much is permitted in a campaign,” he continued, “but the attempt by implication to identify a man like Gen. Eisenhower–whose humanity and broad tolerance are known all over the world–with anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism is just not permissible even in the heat of a campaign. Rabbi Silver called Gen. Eisenhower the ” liberator and emancipator of the Nazi persecuted minorities of Europe–especially my own people.”
Rabbi Silver also made public an exchange of letters he had with Gen. Eisenhower last week. He had written asking for a statement of views on the status of Israel and the G.O.P. platform plank pledging help to bring peace and economic stability to the area. Gen. Eisenhower had replied in a letter dated Friday, pointing out that in Europe in World War II “our forces saved the remnant of the Jewish people of Europe for a new life and a new hope in the re-born land of Israel.”
“It is in the interest of the United States and of all peace-loving nations that political and economic aid to establish their own security should be extended to Israel and to all countries in the Middle East which are similarly intentioned, to an extent consistent with a sound overall mutual aid program,” Gen. Eisenhower said in his letter.
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.
