Jewish leaders of 16 southeastern communities have unanimously condemned “the accusations and vilifications of the Communist dominated ccnntries of Europe against the Jews in those countries, against the Jews in Israel and against Jews everywhere.”
At a two-day conference this week-end on the Southeastern Region of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds held here, the Jewish community leaders warned that “Israel is under attack from still another part of the world and Jewish survival is threatened again.” They called on the southern Jewish communities to “rededicate themselves in their 1953 fund-raising campaigns with new energy to meet these new dangers.
“Jews in the United States must continue to mobilize their energies and resources in the defense of their brothers overseas and in Israel and thereby help to preserve freedom and democracy everywhere,” the resolution stated. “The American Jewish community is the great reservoir of Jewish strength in the world and our responsibility is the great and continuing help of our fellow Jews overseas.”
ASK FOR REVISION OF NEW U.S. IMMIGRATION LAW; LAUD EISENHOWER
The conference also adopted unanimously a resolution calling for revision of the new immigration law. The resolution attacked the “discriminatory” features of the law and charged that it “conflicts with the democratic principles of our country and injures our national reputation with the peoples of the world.”
The assembled Jewish leaders applauded President Eisenhower’s calls for a change in the immigration law and urged a new national immigration policy which would: “Abolish the ‘national origin’ system; allow immigration on the basis of individual character; open immigration not only on the basis of ability to absorb immigrants, but as a positive attitude of welcome; safeguard American rights and privileges to immigrants; and assure equal status for both native and naturalized citizens.”
In a session on developing local community relations programs, David Blumberg, Knoxville, Tenn., declared: “The future of the community relations program in the Southern Jewish communities will depend on cooperation with and utilization of the regional and national community relations agencies. Leadership from the local communities can and will determine the future pattern to be developed in this field and when this lay leadership realizes its full responsibility, then, and only then, can we expect to achieve our ultimate goals.”
Barney Medintz, of Atlanta, Ga., was elected president of the Southeastern Region of the CJFWF, succeeding James Permutt, of Birmingham, Ala. Sydney Lewis, of Richmond, Va., was re-elected vice-president and Lester Sherrick, of Norfolk, Va., was elected a vice-president and chairman of the regional finance committee.
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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.
