With ceremonies marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of the World Jewish Congress, the executive board of the organization tonight concluded its four-day meeting here. Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the WJC, in the closing address, warned that “the same generation that founded the Congress must not now, 25 years later, indulge again in unjustified optimism in a dangerous inclination to take things easy or to continue to engender harmful, unjustified illusions.”
Jewish leaders from 34 countries attended the sessions of the executive board. The anniversary ceremony, held at the Hotel Deberg, was attended by diplomats from 11 nations, including Israel, and heard congratulatory messages from many world leaders, including Israeli President Izhak Ben-Zvi and United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold. Messages were also received from Jewish communities in Japan, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, San Salvador, Cuba, New Zealand, Ethiopia, and other countries.
In his presidential address, Dr. Goldmann warned against complacency. Superficially, he said, it might be deemed that no period in history was “as good, as happy, as the president,” But this, he stated, was an unjustified illusion “so dangerous that it could destroy our people.” Pointing to the major threats to the Jewish minority, he spoke of the present “unstable, tense, brutal era” which, he said, is “doubly dangerous” for a small minority, and referred to “virulent outbursts of an extreme and aggressive nationalism in many parts of the world.”
Some states, he said, refuse to recognize minority rights, and want to force Jews to give up their “specific characteristic and separate existence within the life of the majority.” This, he said, applies to some big powers “like the Soviet Union” as well as to some smaller nations, including some states that recently acquired their independence.
As a result of the cold war, he continued, the great Jewish community in the Soviet Union was nearly cut off from the rest of the Jewish people. “With Jewry reduced from 18, 000, 000 to 12, 000, 000 by the Nazi massacre,” he stated, “the danger of losing nearly 3, 000, 000 Jews under the Soviet regime poses a tremendous danger to our future.”
Other threats to Jewry listed by Dr. Goldmann were the threats of assimilation and “the tendency to conformity which presents a deadly danger for real cultural creativeness, which is always based more on non-conformity than on conformity.” In the face of all these dangers and menaces, the WJC leader said, “Israel is the one, tremendous, positive achievement of our generation.” However, he warned, “much must be done to secure Israel’s future.”
Dr. Goldmann said a re-valuation of priorities in Jewish life now call for: 1, Uniting the Jewish people and teaching it to defend its position and rights as a unified people; 2, Intensification of Jewish education for child and adult alike, “with a deepened tie-up between Israel and the rest of Jewry.”
W. J. C. PARLEY ADOPTS RESOLUTIONS ON PEACE, RUSSIA, ARABS
In resolutions adopted by the board, or its various commissions, the World Jewish Congress:
1. Appealed to the world’s major powers to take urgent steps “to end the present threat to peace.”
2. Expressed regret that the Jews of the Soviet Union are still being denied the rights of free, religious and cultural self-expression, and of forming a coordinating body for these purposes or for contact with Jewish communities in other countries. This resolution expressed the hope the USSR will end “discriminatory practices” against the second largest Jewish community in the world. It also requested that the Soviet Union permit Jews to “join their relatives in Israel.”
3. Expressed its “sorrow” at the refusal of the Arab states to negotiate peace with Israel, and emphasized that “the miserable plight of the Arab refugees is being exploited deliberately so as to keep alive the campaign of hatred against Israel.”
4. Called on all governments and the International Police Organization to help round up Nazi war criminals “and to extradite these criminals and bring them to justice.”
5. Urged the West German Government to accelerate disposition of claims for restitution to Nazi victims before the expiration of pertinent legislation by the end of 1962.
6. Expressed deep concern over the situation of Jews “in some parts of the world,” and urged all members of the United Nations to make sure that no restrictions or limitations to pursue their religious, cultural and traditional way of life are imposed upon the Jewish minority. This resolution urged all governments to permit Jews to emigrate if they desire to do so. The resolution was obviously directed at North African countries in addition to Russia. It requested that Jews be permitted to associate with fellow-Jews in other countries.
The executive board voted to establish in the United States a section of the World Jewish Congress as a constituent member of the world organization. It is understood that this new section will serve, together with the American Jewish Congress, to represent American Jewry within the World Jewish Congress. The board also decided to open a Central American-Caribbean office in Mexico, to be responsible to the North American executive, and decided to proceed with plans for establishment of representative bureaus in Africa and Asia.
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