Mrs. Lawrence Koenigsberger, delegate of the American Jewish Congress women’s division to the conference of the American Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born, has recommended to the Congress that it withdraw its affiliation with the committee, she told the J.T.A. today.
Her action came as the result of the conference’s rejection of a resolution condemning totalitarianism. The resolution was voted down by what Mrs. Koenigsberger charged were railroading tactics last night. She said that most of the delegates had left the conference. Her letter recommending withdrawal from the committee was sent to the Congress headquarters in New York.
Mrs. Koenigsberger, only delegate of a Jewish organization on the conference floor when the resolution was brought up, warned that failure of the resolution to pass would give new ammunition to those who would place new restrictions on aliens. Backing her stand in favoring the resolution were the Roland German American Democratic Society the Workers’ Defense League and the Workman’s Benefit Fund.
Immediately after hearing that the resolution condemning totalitarianism had been defeated, Chairman Martin Dies of the House Committee Investigating un-American Activities, announced that the organization to protect the foreign born has been suspected of Communist leanings for some time, and that certain of its members may be summoned before his committee.
The conference in other resolutions voiced strong opposition to the 100-odd anti-alien bills now pending before Congress, and urged immediate defeat of seven bills including those introduced by Representatives Starnes and Dempsey, both members of the Dies committee. Another resolution stated the committee “will actively combat and expose all organized or unorganized effort to deport individual aliens, whether they entered the United States illegally or on visitors’ permits, who are in danger of death, imprisonment or torture if deportation is effected to the country of origin.”
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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.
