The American Jewish Committee has Disassociated itself from the forthcoming election and referendum of the American Jewish Congress in a statement which voiced “a firm and uncompromising stand against any undemocratic attempt to make of Americans who are Jews a distinct political unit.”
“The Committee places itself squarely on record, with all other right-thinking Americans, in defense of all fundamental human rights,” the statement said. “The Committee pledges itself to fight anti-Semitism shoulder to shoulder with all other elements of our population — Americans who are Jews and Americans who are not — in the belief that an attack on any human right is an attack on democratic principles in general, affecting all of us.”
The statement was signed by Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of the Committee; Sol M. Stroock, chairman of the executive committee, and 30 members of the executive committee.
Meanwhile, Louis Lipsky, vice-president of the Congress, replied to the attack on the referendum voiced by Rabbi Samuel Goldenson of Temple Emanuel in a sermon last Sunday. Mr. Lipsky, addressing about 2,000 representatives of Jewish organizations assembled at the Hotel Capitol to nominate 120 candidates for delegates to the Congress emergency convention in September, said:
“What is being proposed in this situation is not ‘ an agency’s based on doctrine and definition authorized ‘to speak for Jews,’ but an organization to act in defense of Jewish rights threatened here and abroad, so that Jews themselves may effectively contribute to the destruction of prejudice, to the preservation of democracy, to the preparations for the coming days of peace and brotherhood; so that Jews may be active instruments of their own liberation instead of passive victims of a recurrent barbarism.”
Previous to the American Jewish Committee’s announcement of opposition to the referendum, the National Council of Jewish Women announced a policy of non-participation after a poll of its national board had revealed an unanimous stand on the question. The Jewish Labor Committee and Hadassah have also disassociated themselves from the referendum in recent weeks.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
