Hope that the forthcoming session of the Ecumenical Council, which opens in the Vatican September 14, will “voice clear and effective condemnation of anti-Semitism,” was expressed here last night by Dr. Nahum Goldmann in the course of his address at the opening of the week-long world executive meeting of the World Jewish Congress. The meeting is attended by more than 100 leaders from nearly 30 countries.
At the same time, Dr. Goldmann, as president of the World Jewish Gongress, expressed the opinion that “the Jews, as a people, should maintain a position of self-respect and dignity and should not try to raise the issue with too much intensity” at the Vatican. “The Catholic world,” he said, “cannot be less interested than the Jews are in indicating that it no longer condones anti-Semitism and the persecution of Jews.”
The session today discussed various aspects of Jewish life in various countries, including the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union, Latin American countries and the threat of assimilation to American Jewry. Action by the World Jewish Congress to counter assimilation among Jews was urged by Bezalel Sherman, a member of the delegation from the United States. Mr. Sherman is a well known sociologist.
POSSIBILITY SEEN FOR CONTACT WITH JEWS IN COMMUNIST COUNTRIES
Some delegates today saw the possibility that closer ties might be established between Jews in Eastern European countries and those in the West, when the session received a cabled greeting from Rabbi Moshe Rosen, chief rabbi of Rumania. Rabbi Rosen’s message stated, on behalf of the Union of Jewish Communities of Rumania, of which he is chairman, that the Union wishes the Congress session “every success, ” sending greetings “to the Jewish people the world over and for the peace of the world.”
Dr. S. Levenberg, of London, a leader of the WJC in Britain, told the session that “opportunities have now arisen for closer association with East European Jewry on a nonpolitical basis.”
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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.
