Ajcommittee Gravely Disappointed at Failure by Ncc to Remove or Suspend Trifa from Governing Board

The American Jewish Committee said today that it “is gravely disappointed at the failure of the National Council of Churches to remove or suspend from its governing board a fascist war criminal, Bishop Valerian D. Trifa, of Grass Lake, Mich.,” who participated in the murder of thousands of Jews and others while a commandant of the Rumanian fascist Iron Guard in 1941.

Trifa has been charged by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Immigration and Naturalization Service with having lied about his membership in the Iron Guard when he applied for American citizenship after World War II.

The AJCommittee statement, issued by Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, national director and Rabbi James Rudin, assistant director of the AJCommittee’s Interreligious Affairs Department, declared that “The continued presence on the National Council’s governing body of this former commandant of the anti-Semitic Rumanian Iron Guard…will seriously compromise the moral credibility of the National Council and will undoubtedly call into question any of its pronouncements or actions regarding issues of public morality.”

MEETING INTERRUPTED FOR TWO HOURS

A meeting of the policy-making board of the National Council of Churches was interrupted for two hours on Friday by 30 young Jews who demanded Trifa’s ouster from its governing board. The youngsters, who took over the rostrum during a luncheon break, described themselves as members of Concerned Jewish Youth. The CJY is a project of the Betar Zionist Youth Movement. About ten members of the Jewish Defense League also participated in the protest demonstration.

When the board members representing 80 major Protestant denominations, returned to their seats, the protestors handed them leaflets calling Trifa a “mass murderer” and a “Nazi criminal.” They described the Iron Guard as the “Rumanian equivalent of the Nazi Party.” The youths left the meeting room after the policy board agreed to refer the ouster request to its credentials committee. The board, however, declined to vote immediately on the removal of Trifa.

The AJ Committee statement read; “To avoid taking action on the dismissal of Trifa. a murderer, on the technical basis that such decision rests with the Rumanian Orthodox Church is to evade moral responsibility through legalisms.” Citing the government’s charges against Trifa, who faces revocation of his citizenship, the AJ Committee said “It would seem that the very least moral obligation rested on the leadership of the National Council to suspend Trifa pending completion of the government’s proceedings against him.”