American Jewish Congress Adopts $1,950,000 Budget: Truman, Ben Gurion Get Wise Awards

A budget of $1,950,000 for the work of the American Jewish Congress this year both in this country and overseas through the World Jewish congress was adopted today at the closing session of the two-day meeting of the A.J.C.’s administrative committee.

The administrative committee announced that President Truman, Israel Premier David Ben Gurion, Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, chairman of the European executive council of the Joint Distribution Committee, and Prof. Harry A. Wolfson, of Harvard Univeraity, were chosen as recipients of the first annual Stephen S. Wise awards set up by the A.J.C.

Rabbi Irving Miller, president of the American Jewish Congress, who was scheduled to leave tonight for Israel for conferences with leaders in the Jewish state, revealed that the awards bear a cash value each of $1,500. They are dedicated to four major fields of endeavor to which the late "Dr. Wise dedicated his life: extension of civil rights in the U.S; growth and development of Israel; welfare of Jews in other lands; and the enrichment of Jewish learning and scholarship."

Resolutions adopted at the meeting, which was attended by 250 A.J.C. leaders from all sections of the United States, expressed support for the Barden bill for Federal aid to education, denounced the bill for the admission of displaced persors to the United States reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee as "ominous and bigoted," and called for the intensification of efforts for the enactment of the civil rights program, especially the federal fair employment practices bill.

Rabbi Miller, speaking at last night’s session, declared that "our democracy will not be safeguarded by the mechanical reiteration of our opposition to alien ‘isms,’ only by the immediate and practical expansion of our own democratic frontiers."