Christian, Jewish Clergymen Appeal for Religious Leaders’ Campaign

A group of Christian and Jewish clergymen appealed today to religious leaders of all world faiths to join in a campaign of “prayer and pressure” to halt further mass trials and executions in Iraq. The appeal was issued by the “Appeal of Conscience Foundation” whose president is Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Park East Synagogue, New York. Other officers are Rev. Harold A. Bosley of Christ Church Methodist and Rev. Thurston N. Davis, Society of Jesus, director of the John LaFarge Foundation, both vice presidents; the Revs. Eugene K. Kulhane and C. J. McNaspy, editors of the Jesuit magazine “America”; and the Rev. Dr. David H.C. Read, of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, also in New York.

Catholic and Jewish spokesmen joined Jewish leaders today in calling on the Government of Iraq to permit its 2,500 Jews to emigrate and in urging the United States to make a “solemn declaration” that all Iraqi Jews who seek refuge here will be admitted. The statements came at a New York memorial service and protest rally sponsored by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at Congregation Kehilath Jeshrun.

In a statement prepared for delivery at the meeting, Arthur J. Goldberg, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. declared “Iraq’s Jews have only one hope — that the outraged voice of the world’s conscience will persuade the Iraqi authorities to let them leave the country.”

Following the meeting, some 3,000 persons representing the 23 national Jewish agencies that make up the Presidents Conference marched to the Iraqi Mission to the U.N. There Rabbi Herschel M. Schacter, chairman of the Presidents Conference, delivered a letter, “In the interest of simple humanity we ask that you allow the exodus of the Jews in your country whom your government plainly regards as inimical to your domestic well being. We pledge ourselves and our resources to make arrangements for their emigration and reception elsewhere.”

The Brooklyn Jewish Community Council has asked Jewish-owned and operated stores in the borough to close for a half hour on Thursday to symbolize their protest against the public hangings.

The Iraqi hangings were denounced today by Donald S. Harrington, chairman of the New York State Liberal Party, who likened them to Hitler’s “Final Solution” and the Stalinist purges in Russia. A statement condemning the Iraqi hangings and urging world opinion not to remain silent was adopted by representative Jewish organizations in the Greater Miami area today.

The Philadelphia City Council expressed “indignation and great sorrow over the Iraqi Government’s barbaric treatment of its Jewish population.” Special memorial prayers were held in Los Angeles at the behest of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California.

An estimated 3,000 persons attended a Montreal protest rally called by the Canadian Jewish Congress, Federated Zionist Organizations and the Community of Sephardic Jews. Abe Monroe, president, CJ Congress sent a telegram to the Government asking its intervention in stopping any further trials. He added that Mitchell Sharp, Minister for External Affairs, has conveyed the protests of Canadian Jews and Government disapproval to BAGHDAD.