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Jewish Groups Favor Priority for Changes in Immigration Law

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Representatives of the Protestant, Catholic and Jewish faiths agreed on the need for revision of the “iniquitous” McCarran-Walter Immigration Law at a conference here of the Cleveland Committee on Immigration.

Jules Cohen, national coordinator of the National Community Relations Advisory Council, told the meeting that the Jewish community believes that it is a matter of top priority to effect changes in the McCarran Act. He added that for the sake of unity the Jews would join with other groups in seeking emergency legislation to admit 240,000 DP immigrants in the next two years as requested by President Eisenhower.

The Catholic spokesman, Father Aloysius Wycislo, assistant director of war relief of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, said that it was the Catholic view to concentrate first on emergency legislation” not only to provide refugee relief but release for over populated countries such as Italy, Greece and Holland.”

Protestant spokesman Roland Elliott, director of the Immigration Service of the Church World Services of the National Council of Churches of Christ, said that while the Protestant group favored emergency legislation it believed that this was not a long-term solution and that inclusion of the overpopulation issue might endanger passage of the emergency legislation.

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