Congressional Committee Hears Jewish Testimony Against Reducing Immigration Quota

Judge Nathan D. Perlman of the Court of Special Sessions of New York today testified before the House Immigration Committee in opposition to the Gosset Bill, which asks halving of the present immigration quota for the next ten years. He emphasized that the provisions of the bill are “an act of gratuitous cruelty toward the great masses of suffering men and women in devastated Europe.”

Judge Perlman spoke in behalf of the National Community Relations Advisory Council, which includes the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith, the Jewish Labor Committee, the Jewish War Veterans of America, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and Jewish community councils in twenty cities.

“Rather than considering a proposal for the further exclusion of a few of the great mass of helpless persons, the Congress might more appropriately be concerned with means whereby national quotas may be combined and the total quotas of 153,000 a year be made available for admission of victims of the Nazi terror, together with other eligible immigrants, without regard to birthplace or religion,” Judge Perlman said.

Arguing that enactment of the bill would not significantly affect employment conditions, Perlman declared that contrarily, “many immigrants have created new jobs, by creating new enterprises and new industries.” He urged no alteration of existing quotas before a thorough study of the present immigration laws has been made, as recommended by a report of the Immigration Committee itself. “We should ready ourselves after full study,” Perlman declared, “to write a new immigration law, aimed at a constructive immigration policy that would best serve both our domestic interests and the cause of international harmony.”

Read Lewis, executive director of the Common Council for American Unity, also appeared in opposition to the bill.