Senator Eugene McCarthy, Minnesota Democrat, today introduced a Joint resolution on the Senate floor calling “upon the President to use full facilities of our government to make arrangements on an emergency basis for the delivery of an adequate supply of matzoh to the key centers of Jewish life in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, so the feast of the Passover may be observed in keeping with over 5,000 years of Jewish tradition.”
The joint resolution is a companion to the one introduced in the House last week by Ohio Democratic Congressman Michael Feighan. Senator James Eastland, Mississippi Democrat, has made it known that he is in favor of the resolution, as will probably be other Southern Senators who would not be opposed to a debate at this time on a subject other than the civil rights legislation now before the Senate.
The State Department, however, is expected to be against Congressional action on the resolution, it was indicated here today. State Department circles, after referring JTA inquiries from one office to another, finally declined any comment on the resolution, claiming that they could not express opinion until the resolution comes out from the respective committees of the Senate and the House.
In a statement on the House floor today, New York Democratic Congressman Leonard Farbstein condemned Soviet action in holding back the distribution of packages of matzoh from the United States to Jews in the Soviet Union. Noting an article in the paper Soviets-kiya Byelorussia entitled “Stop Your Blackmail by Parcel,” Representative Farbstein retorted, “Don’t look now; your anti-Semitism is showing.”
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.