Leading Yiddish Newspapers Score State Dept. for Excluding J.t.a.

Sharp criticism against the State Department over the barring of Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent Milton Friedman from a press briefing on the Arab refugee problem, conducted by Robert C. Strong, director of the Near Eastern Office of the State Department, was voiced here today in an editorial by the Jewish Daily Forward, largest Yiddish-language daily newspaper in the world. Similar criticism was also voiced in the Jewish Day-Morning Journal, another leading Yiddish-language daily newspaper published here.

The Forward emphasized that “something which is fully in opposition to the spirit of freedom of the press–and also a direct insult to the Jewish press in the United States–has taken place in the State Department” by refusing admission to the JTA correspondent to the press briefing. It pointed out that the readers of the Jewish press in this country are interested in the U.S. policy with regard to the Arab-Israel problem, and expressed hope that Secretary of State Dean Rusk will see to it that no such further discriminations against the Jewish press take place in any section of the State Department.

The Jewish Day-Morning Journal, in a column written by Dr. S. Margoshes, noted Jewish editor and commentator, said: “It is clear that the State Department, by barring Mr. Friedman and maligning the JTA, has committed a grievous wrong not only against an outstanding American Jewish journalist and a uniquely important American Jewish news agency, but against the entire Jewish press that is serviced by the JTA and the hundreds of thousands of Jewish readers throughout the country.”