Central Conference of American Rabbis Adopts Wide Program of Social Justice

The Government’s “understanding in handling cases of men refusing to bear arms because of religious scruples,” was lauded here today at the fifty-third annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in a report of the Commission on Justice and Peace presented by Rabbi Ferdinand M. Isserman.

The report which was adopted at the morning session of the convention voiced complete support of the Government in the present war effort. It urged the Government to accept in the armed forces “refugees who by accident of birth are natives of nations with whom we are at war.” It appealed to the administration to admit Negroes on equal terms with other Americans to all services in the Navy and the Army. It urged the public to welcome Negroes as salesmen and salesladies in commercial establishments. It emphasized that “the plight of the Negro in our country is a violation of every canon of social justice voiced by our Hebrew prophets.”

The Commission’s report as adopted by the convention also recommended “100 percent excess profits tax on all war contracts;” voiced opposition to all profiteering at the expense of the war effort in defense and non-defense industries; opposed “the creation of another generation of war millionaires and silk-shirted workers;” opposed, in principle, a sales tax “which imposes too great a burden on those least able to pay;” urged the application of the Wagner Labor Relations Act and Wages and Hours Bill to farm labor; and opposed the abuse of censorship “which would suppress liberal and progressive movements as subversive. The report also stated that the coming peace treaty “must provide some form of world government which will demand some change in the concept of national sovereignty.”