American Jewish Committee Charges Russia Persecutes Jews

Soviet Russia was charged today with persecuting 2,500,000 Jews and with eradicating Jewish communal and religious life, in a resolution adopted at the concluding session of the 48th annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee, held at the Hotel Roosevelt here. Irving M. Engel was re-elected president of the AJC.

The resolution demanded that the Government of the USSR end its policy of suppressing Jewish and communal life: release all Jewish leaders jailed because of their communal activities; return deported Jews to their homes, and permit freedom of religious worship and education.

The session also adopted a statement declaring that “despite some slight improvement of Arab-Israel relations, the refusal of the Arab countries to recognize Israel is a reality and the continuation of the Arab blockade and boycott still threaten the peace and stability of the area.”

Declaring that the primary needs of the Near East are economic aid. technical assistance, improvement of education and general raising of living standards, the AJC statement welcomed the U. S. Government’s recent decision to review its Near East policy and added that “this review will result in firmer territorial guarantees, a policy of non-discrimination among the various Near East countries in regard to arms and an emphasis on developing economic prosperity and social well-being in all these countries.”

Other important actions taken by the more than 500 leaders of American Jewry at the final session were resolutions which:

1. Called for the prompt establishment of an impartial Presidential commission of distinguished citizens to re-examine the entire loyalty-security program.

2. Asked Congress to make major revisions in the Refuges Relief Act of 1953 and the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act in line with the recommendations of President Eisenhower’s State of the Union message.

3. Roundly condemned the Austrian Government for delaying indemnification of Austrian victims of Nazi persecution and breaking promises during negotiations, and called upon the Austrian Government to produce new proposals to settle all claims.

4. Endorsed five major proposals recently submitted by AJC officers to the Governments of the United States, France, and Tunisia, and which were designed to insure equal rights for all inhabitants of Tunisia and Morocco regardless of religion or origin.

5. Called upon the West German Government to speed up its program of indemnifying individual victims of Nazism, and

6. Urged that the West German Army be placed under democratic civilian control and suggested that voluntary democratic groups in the United States explore a program of cooperation with similar groups in Germany to strengthen democracy in that country.

Dr. John Slawson, executive vice-president of the AJC, reported to the meeting that “prejudice against religious, ethnic and racial groups, has been diminishing in this country. This is occurring in spite of the fact that during the past year, at least, there has been a perceptible increase in the activities and literature of organized hate groups, including those which aim to promote anti-Semitism in the United States.”

Beside Mr. Engel, other officials named at today’s session were: Judge Simon H. Rifkind, chairman of the AJC national executive committee; Ralph E. Samuel, chairman of the administrative committee, and Fred Lazarus, Jr., chairman of the new national advisory council, Judge Learned Hand was presented with the AJC American Liberties Medallion for “exceptional advancement of the principle of human liberty.” The presentation was made last night by Judge Joseph Proskauer, honorary president of the Committee.