The American Jewish Congress today announced institution of a Federal court action to restore U.S. citizenship to an American stranded in Palestine through no fault of his own.
The action will test the constitutionality of a section of the Nationality Act of 1940 which deprives a naturalized U.S. citizen of his nationality if he resides-abroad continuously for more than five years. This section of the Act has no application to native-born citizens who, it is argued, are thus given an unconstitutional preference over other classes of citizens.
The case involves the cancellation of the passport of Morris Mendelsohn, a naturalized U.S. citizen presently residing in Israel. Mendelsohn, who acquired derivative citizenship when he was 10 years old through the naturalization of his father, arrived in this country at the age of 6 and resided here for 16 years. At the age of 22 he was sent to Palestine to manage certain properties owned by his father and was stranded there because of the outbreak of hostilities in the Near East area.
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