An appeal to the nations of the world to take legislative and administrative action to facilitate the naturalization of stateless persons now within their borders, will be made by the Third Plenary Assembly of the World Jewish Congress, which is scheduled to conclude here tomorrow.
The appeal is contained in one of a series of draft resolutions being prepared in committee to sum up the discussions and conclusions of the representatives of Jewish communities in some 60 countries on political, social and cultural matters.
As indicated in the draft resolutions, the WJC will express its deep regret and concern that a number of major powers have declared that they will not adhere to a binding international covenant on human rights. The assembly will urge all members of the United Nations to support the adoption of the covenant as a step towards “the building of a structure of international relations based on mutual understanding and on the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter.”
The Congress will call on Jewish communities throughout the world to “mobilize every moral resource in support of the United Nations and to cooperate actively with like-minded groups in the struggle for implementation of the principles and purposes of the UN throughout the whole field of international relations.” It will also appeal to the statesmen and governments of the world to end the present international tension “with the burden of insecurity which it imposes on the peoples of the world.”
WILL CALL FOR FURTHERANCE OF YIDDISH LANGUAGE
The WJC will adopt a resolution designed to restore the Yiddish language to the position it enjoyed at the beginning of the last decade as a major medium of communication of world Jewry. To counteract the “contentions of assimilation” in the countries outside Israel, the delegates will urge that no efforts be spared to further the “creative power of the Yiddish masses which finds its expression through the medium of Yiddish.” The resolution will call for support of all educational and cultural activities in Hebrew, Yiddish and other languages which are likely to promote Jewish cultural unity.
Another draft resolution urges that “special attention” be paid to the exploration of sociological phenomena underlying the “alienation of Jews from their national origin.” In addition, the delegates will call for establishment of a Jewish world educational council to coordinate Jewish cultural and educational work, and will recommend that the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan be set aside as a worldwide national memorial day for Jews. It was on this day in 1943 that the Warsaw Ghetto Revolt began.
Zalman Shazar, representative from Israel and former Israeli Minister of Education, told the delegates that the desperate battle for daily bread is nearing its end in Israel and “we may look forward to a better economic existence. ” He requested that the WJC triple its efforts in behalf of the economic consolidation of the Jewish State and detailed the contributions of the present generation in Israel.
Sam Schwartz, editor of the Yiddish daily, “Folksbild,” reported on the condition of Jews in Bolivia, Paraguay, Colombia and Ecuador where, he said, “the Jewish communities live under the influence of rabid nationalism and unstable governments recently established by revolution.”
Underlining that he was speaking for some 40,000 Uruguayan Jews as “a Jew from the freest and most democratic republic in Latin America,” Mr. Schwartz declared that the Jews of the four states he named feared to send delegates to this assembly because they would have to report on the “realities” of the situation in their countries, after which their freedom of movement would be curtailed by their governments.
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.
