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American Jewish Committee Asks “enlightened” Immigration Policy

February 2, 1954
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The 47th annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee, which was attended by some 500 persons, concluded its final session here last night with the adoption of resolutions outlining the organization’s views on immigration, civil rights, Israel and the Near East and endorsing plans for the forthcoming celebration of the 300th anniversary of Jewish settlement in the United States.

The AJC resolution an immigration, which hit out at the McCarran-Walter Act as a law of "exclusion rather than immigration," urged Congress to adopt an "enlightened immigration and nationality policy. The civil liberties statement warned of the two-fold concern with the problem of Communism–Communism itself and the forces which infringe upon individual freedom in their fight on Communism. The Committee also urged interreligious cooperation in the battle against Communism, which it said was irreconcilable with religion.

The organization condemned discrimination and hailed the recent advances against it through voluntary and government action. It pledged to cooperate with likeminded groups in a program to promote full equality of opportunity in education, employment, housing and public accommodation.

In reference to Israel and the Near East, the Committee challenged the wisdom of some of the recent American policies toward that area, warning that to give arms to the Arab states at this time "will only bolster intransigence and extremism." The AJC further declared that "the regional approach taken by our government…for the development of the water resources of the region for the mutual benefit of all its inhabitants, Arab and Israeli, represents constructive American statesmanship:"

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