American Jews, while achieving full integration in American life, should retain their identity as Jews and maintain Jewish cultural traditions, Irving M. Engel, newly-elected president of the American Jewish Committee told a press conference at the Biltmore Hotel here.
“We want Jews to be integrated into American life.” Mr. Engel declared.” and we do our best to assimilation. We want American Jews to maintain their identity as Jews and to live openly as Jews without timidity on the one hand, or truculence on the other.
“We do not subscribe to the well-known ‘melting pot’ theory of assimilation. Under this theory, immigrants to the United States, after a reasonable time, were supposed to dissolve into the general mass of Americans and lose whatever distinctive cultural and ethnic traditions they had, becoming indistinguishable from everyone else.
“We believe in unity, not uniformity,” Mr. Engle explained.” All men are created equal, but they have a right to be different. America does not say to new Americans:’ You must sever your ties, cut yourself away from all religious cultural and ethnic traditions.’ The American Jewish Committee believe that thought have made to enrich American life.”
PLEDGES AID TO ISRAEL; WARNS OF BIGOTRY
Turning to AJC’s position on Israel, Mr. Engel declared that since the United Nations partitions resolution in 1947, the American Jewish Committee has given wholehearted support to Israel’s efforts to establish the new State as a bulwark of democracy in the Middle East. He emphasized that at the January 1954 annual meeting of the AJC a resolution had reaffirmed the organization’s 1949 Statement of Views on Israel.
The AJC president pointed out that many Israeli officials including former Prime Minister David Ben Gurion had warmly praised the American Jewish Committee for the assistance it has given to Israel. He added that this policy of helping Israel “within the framework of American interests” would remain unchanged.
“Of course.” Mr. Engel cautioned, “we have always and will continue to reserve the right to differ with the State of Israel on any question. In general, however, we do not believe in taking sides on matters of purely internal nature in Israel. Only where Israel’s policies affect American Jews do we think it right to make our views known.”
Touching upon domestic issues, Mr. Engel said that anti-Semitism was not the only form of prejudice of concern to the AJC. He declared that at the present time overt anti-Semitism is no longer the problem it once was. He warned, however, that open attack against Jews has been succeeded by more insidious and oblique methods of arousing bigotry.
“Most of the blatant hate-mongers.” he related, “have gone underground because the American public has been pretty well educated to understand and reject their foul utterances. The hate-mongers are now concentrating on vicious attacks against such institutions as the United Nations, the American public school system, and especially all forms of intercultural education. In creating such an atmosphere where every man suspects his neighbor, these bigots are promoting the growth of anti-Semitism. That is why we think it important to pay attention to all so were of suspicion, even where open anti-Semitism is not yet manifest.”
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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.
