Influential Jewish Republicans here and around the country have endorsed with marked enthusiasm their party’s platform planks that commit their Presidential standard bearer, whether it is President
Ford or Ronald Reagan, to issues of special Jewish interest and concern, a canvass by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has indicated.
The 22,000-word platform comes before the convention’s second session tonight, with ratification certain. No visible dissent has been discerned from the 2259 delegates on those planks related to the Middle East, the United Nations, Soviet emigration policy, the Arab economic boycott, a firm warning against the renewal of the Arab oil embargo, combatting of political terrorism, opposition to quotas in Jobs and educational opportunities, support of equal rights for women and federal aid of private schools within constitutional limits.
FISHER NOTES CLEAR, RINGING STATEMENT
Detroit industrialist and philanthropist Max Fisher, who holds a leading role in President-Ford’s campaign, voiced a general sentiment in declaring that he was “delighted” with the platform and its “very, very strong statements of American support for Israel.”
Fisher, who is staying at the Crown Center Hotel where Ford and his top advisors and White House aides have their quarters, referred to the platform statement expressing “our commitment to Israel is fundamental and enduring” and “our policy must remain one of decisive support for the security and integrity of Israel.”
Fisher said he believes the platform “reflects the President’s record and beliefs in this regard for more than 25 years of his public career.”
He added: “I am particularly pleased with the clear and ringing statement of continuing support for Israel in the United Nations, the very firm statement about rights for Soviet Jews, the denunciation of political terrorism and our call for international action to suppress terrorism and root it out.”
Stressing the importance of the platform’s views toward the UN, Sen. Jacob K. Javits, who is a member of the New York delegation, said the platform was as strong or stronger on Israel’s behalf than any ever adopted by either major party.
SLAMS POLITICIZATION OF UN
The platform vigorously condemns “politicization” of the UN in which Israel has been a chief victim. “The very principals of the organization are threatened,” the platform says, by the UN becoming “arrayed against vital interests of any of its member states on ideology or other narrow grounds.” It exemplifies this by stressing that “actions such as the malicious attempt to depict Zionism as a form of racism are inconsistent with the objectives of the United Nations and are repugnant to the United States.”
The U.S. “will continue” to defend “any nation subjected to such outrageous assaults,” the plank also states. In addition, it points out that “the United States should withdraw promptly” from the International Labor Organization, a UN subsidiary, “If that body falls to stop its increasing politicization.” The U.S. has warned that it will leave the ILO, because, among other things, it has allowed the PLO to enter as an observer.
PLEASED WITH DOMESTIC PLANKS
George Klein, New York industrialist who was assisting Fisher in coordinating the Ford campaign nationally with heavy emphasis on the New York area, said he was especially pleased with domestic planks that oppose quota systems and offer hope of federal aid to parochial schools.
Klein also welcomed the absence in the Middle East section of any mention of Palestinians and the emphasis that an Arab-Israeli peace must come “between the states” in the area and in “face-to-face negotiations.”
David Lissy, a lawyer from Philadelphia now on Ford’s White House staff, indicated that he found high enthusiasm for the platform in his talks with up to 75 of the Jewish delegates at the convention.
Mrs. Lyn Meyerhoff, of Baltimore, backing Ford, said “I believe Mr. Ford is possibly the most enthusiastic person ever to seek the office of the Presidency with the greatest commitment on human personal rights that has appeared in our democracy in the 16 years I have been involved in politics.”
Gordon Zacks, of Columbus, Ohio, pointed out that the platform plank “with respect to our commitment to Israel” is “one of the strongest ever adopted by either party” and “I am very pleased with it.”
ERA PLANK APPLAUDED
The adoption by the platform committee of the minority report regarding the constitutional amendment for equal rights for women (ERA) was especially a pleasing move to Ms. Pat Goldman, of Washington, D.C., who is spearheading the Republican Women’s Task Force here and Mrs. Joan Miller Lipsky, of Cedar Rapids, lows, who brought the issue to a head within the platform committee.
ERA has won the early and consistent support of many Jewish national women’s organizations and it has been endorsed in Republican Party platforms since 1940. In the platform subcommittee’s deliberation this year, however, a majority opposed endorsement. Mrs. Lipsky, a member of Iowa’s delegation and its representative on the subcommittee, fought it out in the full committee and had endorsement restored.
Mrs. Lipsky, a member of Iowa’s State House of Representatives for 10 years and a mother of three children, is a national leader for women’s rights. Her grandfather, Henry Smulekoff, founded the furniture business bearing his name in Cedar Rapids. Her husband’s grandfather. Philip Ginsburg, was publisher of the old Chicago Daily Jewish Courier, Ms. Goldman’s father is Dr. Jacob Goldman, a dentist in Newton, N.J. Her mother is the late Miriam Cassidy of Fredericksburg, Va.
At the close of last night’s session, Rabbi Israel Miller, a vice-president of Yeshiva University and the immediate past chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, gave the benediction.
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.
