CJF Adopts Resolutions

Resolutions dealing with areas of Jewish concern in North America and overseas were adopted by the 41st General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds at its five-day convention here. A Soviet Jewry resolution expressed admiration and support for those “courageously demanding the right to emigrate and the right to live as Jews.” It called on the U.S. Congress to enact the Jackson and Vanik amendments to the East-West Trade Act that would deny most favored nation status and credit concessions to the Soviet Union until the head tax is cancelled.

However, the CJF plenum rejected a proposed amendment to the resolution to ostracize any CJF official or CJF awards recipients who in business dealings with the USSR did not seek to exert pressure on the Kremlin to end its policy of harassing its Jewish citizens. The amendment was introduced by Steve Cohen, a youth delegate from New York representing the Jewish Association for College Youth (JACY). The resolutions committee rejected a resolution presented by the youth caucus calling for greater democracy in the CJF and local Federation structures.

A resolution on Jewish education was adopted urging that national and local action be taken “to ascertain the causes of the decline of enrollment in Jewish schools,” and to take measures to reverse the trend. The CJF also resolved that “a just and lasting peace in the Middle East can be achieved only by binding agreements” and urged their respective governments (U.S. and Canada) to “continue their efforts to bring Israel and the Arab states into direct negotiations.”

The CJF commended President Nixon and the Congressional bi-partisan support for helping Israel purchase arms for defense and for granting it economic assistance and funds to aid in resettlement of Soviet Jews. Other resolutions dealt with Jews in Arab lands and U.S. urban crises.