Backers of NY Emergency Conference Denounce Critics

Six Jewish leaders who attended an emergency conference on the plight of some New York Jews have criticized a charge by eight other Jewish leaders that “the vigilante tone that prevailed was a distortion of Jewish values.” The six said that “the critical statement of the eight done not refer or take exception to a single point made by any of the speakers at the meeting,” but rather “speaks of a ‘vigilante tone’ which it neither defines nor documents.” They contended that “Elementary principles of rational discourse would have demanded directed at quoted remarks instead of vague accusations that are difficult to refute,” The six are Rabbi Seymour Siegel, Rabbi Edward Gershfield and Prof. Moshe Zucker of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Rabbi Norman Frimer, director of the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation; Prof. Michael Wyschograd of Baruch College, and Lou Weiser, president of the Council of Jewish Organizations in Civil Service.

The conference was convened May 15 by the New York Board of Rabbis, The eight leaders subsequently Issued a joint statement decrying its “vigilante tone” and “distortion of reality” for exuding “hysteria” at the situation of some American Jews. “The United States in 1972, for all of its problems and agonies, is not Weimar Germany,” the either asserted. “To speak as thought it were is a grave disserve to American Jewry and a defamation of this country.” The eight were Eli Wiesel, Charles Silberman, Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel, Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, Rabbi Henry Siegman, Rabbi Balfour Brickner, Rabbi Wolfe Kelman and Rabbi Walter Wurtzburger.

The six who challenged their statement said; “The Weimar Republic was never mentioned at the meeting and therefore the accusation that current conditions in the US were compared to the Weimar Republic is totally unfounded.” The conference- “factual, informative and deeply imbued with the highest standards of Jewish ethic”-was repeatedly marred by “disruptive actions” from the floor by “those who insisted on their right to speak and would not accept the format” and by “others who felt that a more militant stance ought to have been adopted,” the six claimed, They did not specifically attribute to the eight these “disruptive actions,” an allusion to protests and walk-outs by two dozen participants. “In spite of these attempts,” the six said, “the overwhelming majority of the 1200 persons present conducted them selves with great dignity and decorum.” Charging that “any Jewish ‘leadership’ that looks with distaste at Jewish anguish has thereby forfeited its leadership role,” the six concluded; “The deprivation of various ethic and racial minorities in the US must and will be cured without substituting injustices to Jews for those to be cured American Jewish youth as American Jewry will settle for nothing else,”