Seven Republican Senators and Representatives were commended today by national Jewish religious bodies and a large number of national and local Jewish community relations organizations for introducing legislation to revise the present law governing immigration and naturalization.
In identical letters to the legislators, and in a letter at the same time to President Eisenhower, the Jewish groups, while expressing disappointment over some “shortcomings” on the measures, urged immediate hearings on the bills, and on other pending immigration legislation, in this session of Congress.
The American Jewish Congress, Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish War Veterans, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, United Synagogue of America and 31 state, regional and local Jewish community relations councils throughout the country joined in the messages to the President and the legislators. The letters were sent by Bernard H. Trager, chairman of the National Community Relations Advisory Council, joint coordinating body for all the organizations.
Noting that the new Republican-sponsored proposals coincide with the recommendations for revision of the present Act advanced by the President in a letter he wrote last April to Senator Arthur V. Watkins, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee on immigration, the Jewish groups, in their letter to the Chief Executive, said:
“We are convinced, as you are, Mr. President, that the present Act requires basic revision. We earnestly trust that the new bills will have your outspoken and unqualified support and that you will make known your desire for early hearings on the measures in the present Congress.”
Calling the Republican-sponsored measures “excellent and far reaching proposals in behalf of an enlightened American immigration policy,” the Jewish groups expressed disappointment that they did not provide for abolition of the national origins quota system. President Eisenhower, they pointed out, had called that system “the blasphemy against democracy that only certain groups of Europeans are welcome to our American shores.”
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.
