President Kennedy’s opposition to giving Federal aid to private and religious schools was fully backed here today at the opening session of the five-day biennial convention of the National Council of Jewish Women. The convention is attended by 800 delegates from all parts of the country.
“The position of the National Council of Jewish Women is that we are unalterably opposed to Federal aid to any private or religious primary or secondary schools,” Mrs. Charles Hymes of Minneapolis, national president of the organization, declared.
Touching upon the relationship between American Jewry and Israel, Mrs. Hymes told the delegates “Israel is passing through a trying period of rapid growth. If a stable country like the United States, almost 200 years old, exists in a climate of urgency and change, how much more so, then, does this small nation celebrating its Bar Mitzvah year in the oldest land in the world. Is it any wonder that in these turbulent times of uncertainty sparks ignite and flames burst forth?
“We in the United States, who get only pieces of this picture from either the Jewish or general press, are frequently at a loss to understand the nature of developments in Israel,” she continued. “Israel will continue to do things we can’t understand, make statements we can’t agree with. Basically this should not affect our friendship towards Israel, our understanding, our support, our religious and cultural ties.
“We are not called on to judge everything Israel does; to have an opinion, for instance, on Israeli statements concerning Aliyah. Leaders of the American Jewish community don’t have to rush into print every time Ben-Gurion or another Israeli official makes a speech. Let us rededicate ourselves to the long-range task–to the educational and cultural upbuilding of Israel, as we do to the building of the Jewish heritage in our own country and everywhere.”
Analyzing American Jewish communal life, the NCJW president pointed out that 80 percent of the Jewish people living in the United States are American-born. “The emerging American Jewish community represents truly the best of both worlds–the best of the world of our tradition, our Judaism, and the best of the democratic milieu in which we so fortunately live today,” she said.
“We are a very well organized-community, and lately we hear suggestions that we should be organized more tightly–be more disciplined. There is only one kind of American Jewish community in which the National Council of Jewish Women can function, and that is one which is democratically organized, where everyone has a right to express his own opinion and to work for what he believes in. This does not mean that we support chaos. We believe that all groups in the community should have an opportunity to get together and talk over their different approaches, and if possible to arrive at a coordinated, agreed way of working. But all this must be based on the democratic principle of agreement,” Mrs. Hymes emphasized.
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.
