The National Board of B’nai B’rith Women adopted a resolution reaffirming the organization’s fight for early ratification by the United States of the United Nations genocide pact. This action followed a special meeting of the board at the Senate office building with a number of Senators on the genocide treaty and other questions.
The women were addressed by Senators Jacob K. Javits, New York Republican, Robert F. Kennedy, New York Democrat, Claiborne Pell, Rhode Island Democrat, and William Proxmire, Wisconsin Democrat. In an apparent response to criticism by the American Jewish Congress for favoring New York State aid to parochial schools, Sen. Javits told the B’nai B’rith women, “I have never refused to do what I had to do in the Congress because I am a Jew or because an issue before me concerned Jews. I have always stood by my conscience.”
During a question period following remarks by Sen. Proxmire, Mrs. Nathan Holstein, of Pittsburgh, Pa., a vice-president of B’nai B’rith Women, asked the senator whether Congress realized how demoralized young people are when they hear that the Senate has failed to act on the genocide treaty for 18 years. Sen. Proxmire, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on human rights, agreed that failure on this issue disillusioned youth. He said it was “a most serious indictment of our Government and of the Senate.”
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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.
