Aj Committee Urged-to Serve As Catalyst to Insure Equality and Social Justice for All Citizens

Elmer L. Winter of Milwaukee, the newly elected president of the American Jewish Committee, called today for a “new charter for America, a charter that will insure decency, fair play, equality of opportunity and social justice to all our citizens,” and urged the AJ Committee to serve as a catalyst in establishing such a charter.”

In his acceptance speech, Winter, who is also the president of Manpower, Inc., predicted an increasingly important role for voluntary agencies and private initiative as a result of the fiscal and operating policies of the Nixon Administration. He asserted that voluntary action must “fill the voids created by cutbacks and terminations of government programs affecting disadvantaged groups.” While Washington refers to this year as the “year of Europe,” Winter noted, “I believe the priorities of the moment call for the establishment of programs that will make this the ‘year of America.'”

The AJ Committee leader pledged that the human relations organization would continue to widen its commitment to assist the development of Israel, work closely with other organizations to ensure free emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union and greatly expand its involvement in solving the problems of this nation’s cities.

Winter, the first mid-westerner elected president of the AJ Committee, is a lawyer by training, author of nine books and a prize-winning painter and sculptor. He has served as a delegate to the White House Conference on Youth and to the White House Conference on the Industrial World Ahead. He has also been chairman of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Division of the National Alliance of Businessmen to which he was appointed by President Johnson and reappointed by President Nixon.

JEWS COMMITTED TO A HUMANE SOCIETY

At an earlier session, Philip E. Hoffman, outgoing president of the AJ Committee, who was elected the organization’s honorary president, responded to a tribute at the end of his four years in office by urging the establishment of an integrated society free of all discrimination based on race, religion, sex or national origin.

“I deeply believe that there is but one dependable course for this country and for this American Jewish Committee,” Hoffman said, “and that is the course to a fully integrated society.” This is the only course, he said, “that will produce the kind of humane society to which we are committed by virtue of our American heritage and our Jewish faith.”

At another session, Yehuda Rosenman, director of the AJ Committee’s Jewish Communal Affairs Department, noted that there is a “growing polarization within the Jewish community.” There is both, he said, “an acceleration of apathy, indifference and assimilation” and “new Jewish commitment, learning and energies.” Most American Jews, Rosenman said, “are slowly but surely losing Jewish consciousness, intermarriage has become almost a norm within the Jewish community, with a growing acceptance of such marriages as a fact of life.”

Divorce rates among Jews are growing alarmingly, Rosenman said, and the birth rate of Jewish women is the lowest among all religious and ethnic groups: “The danger to Judaiac values and to Jewish group continuity is indeed real.” Despite this, Rosenman said, American Jews have sufficient vitality to make possible the survival of their religion. He urged “renewed spirit and innovative thinking among Jewish educators and laymen alike.”

CONTINUE SUPPORTING JACKSON, MILLS-VANIK MEASURES

At the closing session today, the AJ Committee resolved to continue supporting the Jackson Amendment and the Mills-Vanik Bill “until and unless there is overwhelming evidence that the rights of Jews in the Soviet Union to emigrate have been made genuinely secure and there are realistic assurances that these rights will continue to be honored.” The resolution adopted by the AJ Committee’s National Executive Council also commended the efforts of President Nixon “and his pledge to continue his personal representations on every possible level to secure liberalization of Soviet policy.”

The resolution also commended “members of the U.S. Congress for their dedication to the cause of Soviet Jewry through their overwhelming support of the Jackson Amendment and the Mills-Vanik bill which played such a major role in persuading the Soviet Government to suspend the education tax.”

In a resolution on Jews in Iraq and Syria, the AJ Committee called “on our government to redouble its efforts both directly and through all possible diplomatic channels to alleviate the plight of these helpless victims of oppression.” In a resolution on Israel’s 25th anniversary, the AJ Committee pledged to increase its efforts in the U.S. and through its offices in Israel, Europe and Latin America “to re-enforce the bonds of mutual understanding and cooperation between Israelis and diaspora Jewry to help resolve the serious problems still facing Israeli society and to strengthen the quality of Jewish life throughout the world.”