The Board of Rabbis of Southern California today issued a statement expressing “profound sympathy with the Negro community in Greater Los Angeles in its struggle to achieve full emancipation and equality.” The Board represents Conservative, Orthodox and Reform rabbis.
“As Jewish religious teachers we are deeply concerned about the problems of discrimination and injustice which afflict our Negro neighbors,” the statement said, “Our own history of suffering from prejudice and persecution has made us particularly sensitive to the plight of oppressed peoples everywhere.
“Our moral principles and way of life, drawn from the sacred texts of the Jewish religion — the Bible and the Talmud — move us to speak out at this time, as the ancient Hebrew prophets spoke out in their generation against the indignities imposed upon any group in our society.
“We call upon the political, civic, business and labor leaders of this great metropolitan center to act with dispatch in answer to the grievances voiced by Negro leaders through eliminating segregation and inequality in the social, educational and economic spheres of community life. We call upon the members of our congregations to act in all their business and social contacts with their fellow citizens in the Negro community in accordance with the moral imperatives of our religious tradition.”
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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.
