The United States Government was called upon today to exert pressure against the Arab states to cease their policies of discrimination against American servicemen of the Jewish faith at Arab ports and military bases. In a resolution adopted at the closing session of the annual convention of the Mizrachi Hapoel Hamizrachi, the Religious Zionists of America, the organization also lauded President Kennedy for his decision to sell defensive missiles to Israel “to sustain a modus vivendi in the fiery Middle East.”
The 500 delegates attending the conclave also urged the U.S. Government to continue its program of technical assistance to Israel “to enable her to expand her economy and to absorb the influx of refugees from various parts of the world.” Another resolution appealed to the Postmaster General of the United States to ban all hate literature from the mails.
Dr. Joseph Burg, Israel’s Minister of Social Welfare, told the convention that there was “an urgent and compelling need for American social workers to render aid in helping Israel to absorb a tremendous influx of immigrants.” He said that the 300 percent population increase since Israel’s establishment in 1948 had “challenged the leaders of Israel to take appropriate measures to integrate the newcomers.”
He told the 600 delegates that American social work aid was needed in family casework, family relief, psychiatric casework, community rehabilitation and general guidance in “adapting to the mores of a strange environment.” He added that the “expertise and experience” of American social work could be “extremely useful in furthering” the process of immigrant acculturation.
Dr. Shlomo Ben Meir, deputy speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, declared that there was no discrimination whatever in Israel “against any religious or social minority because of racial background, sectarian doctrine or sociological viewpoint.” He declared that Israel “makes supreme efforts to give minorities all the rights and guarantees of citizens of the state.” Israel, he said, extended “complete religious autonomy and freedom to her Arab and other minority populations” and all Israelis were “guaranteed unhindered and unfettered political and social rights regardless of race, creed, color or national origin.”
Rabbi Mordecai Kirshblum was re-elected president of the Orthodox Zionist group. In his acceptance address, he deplored “the ever-growing manifestations of virile anti-Semitism in virtually every part of the world,” adding that “the nations of the world seem to be apathetic to the extraordinary menace which anti-Semitism represents for the continued vitality of the democratic process.”
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.
