Convention of Reform Rabbis Attacks Soviet Anti-semitism

The 68th annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, representing the Reform rabbinate in this country, today attacked “mounting evidence of present and past crimes of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and satellite countries.”

The delegates also adopted a resolution asking that the influence of the United States be continuously exerted toward arranging a fair and permanent peace between Israel and the Arab States, which will guarantee the integrity of the present territory of Israel, and access for her shipping through the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Akaba.” The resolution called on Israel “to make a clear, new and explicit statement of the contribution she would be willing to make, as part of a general peaceful settlement towards the solution of the Arabs refugee problem, which remains a troubling and unsettling issue.”

In another resolution, the convention said: “We cannot accept the refusal of our government to extend asylum to Egyptian Jewish refugees. We call for passage of the bill introduced by Senators Clifford Case (R-NJ), Irving Ives (R-NY) and Jacob Javits (R-NY) to admit up to five thousand Egyptian Jewish refugees. Pending that passage we appeal to President Eisenhower to use the emergency parole powers granted to him by Congress.”

Declaring that “the principle of separation of church and state is being challenged on a broad front in our national life,” the convention strongly reaffirmed its support of “both the spirit and the letter” of separation of church and state as stated in the First Amendment. The convention petitioned the Government of the United States “to take the initiative in declaring a moratorium on the test of nuclear and hydrogen weapons, in the hope that our example will be followed by others.”