The Jewish Federation of Shreveport has adopted a resolution criticizing the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith for filing a brief with the United States Supreme Court opposing segregation of Negroes. The federation charged that the ADL “had disregarded the wishes and best interests of Jews in the South” in taking such action. The resolution said:
“1. The Shreveport Jewish Federation shall go on record as opposing the stand taken by any of its beneficiary Jewish organizations on any controversial political matter which is not essentially Jewish. 2. The Shreveport Jewish Federation will not make further contributions to any organization which takes such a stand. 3. The offending organizations, the Southern lodges of B’nai B’rith and the Southern Federations be informed of this motion passed by the Shreveport Jewish Federation.”
(In New York, the ADL said that its decision to file a brief amicus with the U.S. Supreme Court in the segregation cases was made by its national commission. “The commission voted overwhelmingly in favor of this action after a full hearing of the views of representatives from the South as well as other parts of the country,” the ADL said in a statement to the JTA. “In such an issue, which is national in scope, national policy cannot be determined by the wishes of a single regional group, nor can it be based on mere “expediency” or “practicality,” the statement pointed out.)
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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.