Stamford Mayor Backs J.w.v. in Dispute with Rightist Youth Organization

Charges and counter-charges between the Jewish War Veterans here and the Young Americans for Freedom, a group labeled by a leader of the Jewish veterans as “associated with the John Birch Society,” have sparked a bitter fight in this community.

Thomas Flaherty, chairman of the Stamford and Northeastern University chapters of the YAF, has requested Mayor Thomas C. Mayers to remove Leslie Meyers, state commander of the JWV, from membership on this city’s Patriotic and Special Events Commission. The Mayor turned down the request, and Mr. Flaherty has threatened to take the issue to the Board of Representatives. He said he would also ask his national organization to start a law suit on the grounds that the YAF has been “slandered” by accusations that it is tied with the John Birch Society.

The entire issue started last Memorial Day, when the Patriotic and Special Events Commission voted to bar from the holiday parade a float entered by the YAF. Although four of the five members of the commission voted for the ban–with the fifth member absent–the YAF has centered its fire on Mr. Meyers. At that time, while a member of the Commission, he was also state commander-elect of the Connecticut Jewish War Veterans.

Mr. Meyers’ stand for the ban of the YAF float has been backed by the JWV’s outgoing commander, and by Harry Rosenbaum, vice-president of the advisory board of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League in Connecticut. Noting that Mr. Meyers voted for the ban of the YAF float as a member of the commission, and not as a representative of the Jewish war veterans, and that, unlike “the super-patriots,” Mr. Meyers “lost an arm in the war,” Mr. Rosenbaum said the action was Justified because the YAF is a political body.

Many Stamford citizens are supporting Mayor Mayers in his refusal to remove Mr. Meyers from the Patriotic and Special Events Commission. Some, however, have written the Mayor, attacking the ban and leveling their principal charges of “discrimination” against the Jewish veterans’ leader. The Mayor insists that the YAF float “was not in keeping” with the objectives of the Memorial Day Parade.