A resolution strongly urging the United States Senate to adopt the pending Williams-Javits measure which would prevent boycott activities by Arab states against Americans doing business with Israel was adopted here yesterday at the concluding session of the annual convention of the American Jewish Press Association. At the same session, terminating the association’s four-day parley, the AJPA re-elected Morris Janoff, editor-publisher of the Jewish Standard, Jersey City, N.J., as president.
Another resolution adopted unanimously expressed the association’s appreciation to the U.S. Senate for its action in protest against the mistreatment of Soviet Jewry by the Soviet Government. The AJPA also decided to launch a project for standardizing the transliteration of Hebrew terms used frequently in the English-language Jewish press.
Among the highlights of the convention was an address by Philip Slomovitz, editor publisher of the Jewish News of Detroit, who took exception to a survey published by B’nai B’rith, characterizing the Jewish press as “dull” and as “disproportionately” devoted to social news. Mr. Slomovitz, chairman of the annual Jewish Press Week, repudiated the charges as “unwarranted, unimaginative, certainly not factual.” He noted that the English Jewish press, which publishes social news just as all newspapers do, “also offers the world Jewish news compiled for us by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, as the major newsgathering agency in world Jewry.” “It is wrong,” he said, “to denigrate a great instrument in Jewish life, especially when it is the only means of making American Jewry an informed constituency.”
The association paid tribute to two Southern Jewish newspapers–the Southern Israelite of this city and the Hebrew Watchman of Memphis–who are currently celebrating their 40th anniversaries. In a special ceremony, Adolph Rosenberg, editor-publisher of the Southern Israelite, was honored by leaders of the Atlanta Jewish community.
In addition to re-electing Mr. Janoff as president, the association elected Leo Frisch, of the American Jewish World of Minneapolis-St. Paul, as honorary vice-president, citing him as “one of the chief pioneers of American Jewish Journalism.”
Other officers chosen were: Mr. Rosenberg as first vice-president; Albert Golomb, Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle and Mrs. Lee Neusner, Connecticut Jewish Ledger, Hartford, vice-presidents; Eli R. Jacobs, Buffalo Jewish Review, treasurer; Jimmy Wisch, Texas Jewish Post, secretary. Elected to the executive board were Martin Korik, Jewish Record, Atlantic City; Conrad Isenberg, Jewish Civil Leader, Worcester; and Milton Pinsky, Ohio Jewish Chronicle, Columbus.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
