A delegation of American Jewish Committee leaders will embark on a good will mission to South America, it was announced here today by Irving M. Engel, president of the organization. He said that “the State Department has expressed enthusiastic interest in the mission and is facilitating some aspects of the trip.”
The delegation will confer with government leaders, Roman Catholic church dignitaries and U.S. Embassy officials in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Santiago. Members of the mission will also visit religious, educational and welfare organizations and hold discussions with leaders of the Jewish communities in Argentina, Brazil and Chile
“A number of compelling issues bearing on improvement of understanding between our neighbors in South America and the United States–involving peoples of all faiths–requires that we undertake this survey mission to an area of rapidly increasing importance in world affairs,” Mr. Engel said. One of the principal subjects of concern, he added, will be the question of opening havens for refugees fleeing religious, political or racial persecution, in keeping with a statement made by Pope Pius XII, to an AJC delegation last summer.
Participating in the delegation in addition to Mr. Engel will be Jacob Blaustein, AJC honorary president; Dr. John Slawson, executive vice-president; Julius H. Cohn, vice-president; Martin Gang, vice-president; Simon Segal, director of the Foreign Affairs Department.
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