Associate Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg called on the United States tonight to take lead in international cooperation for the protection of the rights of the individual. He spoke at a dinner meeting of the American Jewish Committee’s Appeal for Human Relations at the Hotel Plaza, where the 1965 Herbert H. Lehman Human Relations Award was presented to Joseph Klingenstein. The dinner launched the AJC’s 1965 Appeal for Human Relations, a nationwide drive for a total of $4,700,000.
Justice Goldberg specifically urged the U.S.A. to champion adoption of the Treaty on Human Rights drafted by the United Nations to implement the Declaration of Human Rights. The time is overdue, he said, for adoption of such a treaty, and he added: “We should adopt such a treaty without reservations, for none is needed or justified.” Two draft covenants on human rights–one on civil and political rights, the other on economic, social, and cultural rights–are at present before the United Nations General Assembly, where methods of implementation are being discussed.
Justice Goldberg called the recent appointment of Morris B. Abram, president of the American Jewish Committee, as the U.S. representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights “a happy omen of our country’s commitment to such a treaty.” He said that Mr. Abram’s efforts on behalf of human rights here and abroad “are universally known and widely and properly acclaimed.”
Mr. Abram, who also spoke at the dinner, explained that he had just returned from the session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva which debated a draft international convention outlawing all forms of religious intolerance. “Who would have thought that we would ever see the day when the nations of the world would consider an international law guaranteeing religious freedom,” Mr. Abram asked.
ABRAM REJECTS COMMUNIST APPEALS FOR STATE MEDDLING IN RELIGION
Mr. Abram explained, though, that a serious area of debate had arisen between the democracies and the Communist coalition over Communist appeals for stronger state controls over the manifestations of religious belief. He did not believe in the superior judgment of the state in this field. “The United States,” he declared, “wants no part of the state apparatus controlling individual belief, conviction or adherence to a religion or a belief. We want no repetition of those black days when the state checked into the existence or non-existence of a religious affiliation. No moral state should want this power over conscience and no healthy society needs it.”
The presentation to Mr. Klingenstein of the Herbert H. Lehman Award–in the form of a three-inch silver medallion portrait of the late New York Governor, sculptured imbasrelief–was made by Samuel D. Leidesdorf, a previous winner. Mr. Leidesdorf, prominent business executive who has worked in behalf of many educational, civic, and philanthropic groups, was dinner chairman. Saul Horowitz, Jr., was co-chairman.
Mr. Klingenstein served as president of Mount Sinai Hospital from 1956 to 1962, and since that time has been chairman of its board. A long-time leader of the American Jewish Committee, he has endowed, through the AJC, a chair at Columbia University’s Department of Social Psychology, known as the Joseph Klingenstein Chair in Inter group Relations.
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.
