Federation of Men’s Clubs Urges Attack on Nation’s Growing Urban Crisis

The National Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs, concluding its 39th annual convention, endorsed the recommendations of the President’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, urged Congress to enact appropriate legislation and called on Federal, state and city governments to give “effective assistance to all who have lost homes, jobs and businesses” as a result of ghetto rioting and looting. It asked Congress to enact a heavily funded “human renewal program” as a major means of attacking the nation’s “worsening urban crisis.”

In other resolutions, the convention urged the United States and Canada to use their influence on the Soviet Government to cease its repression of Jewish life in the Soviet Union, and called on the Soviet regime to implement Premier Kosygin’s promise to permit Jews to emigrate to be reunited with their families abroad. The convention told the federation’s 100,000 members to “write a letter each week to the Soviet Ambassador in Washington” until the USSR ends its anti-Jewish repressions.

In a series of resolutions on the Middle East, the convention declared that the United States

should cease supplying military equipment to Jordan “which serves only to uphold its bellicosity toward Israel and its refusal to discuss peace” and endorsed Israel’s continuing attempt to arrange face-to-face peace talks with Jordan, Egypt and Syria. Earlier, the convention heard Consul General Michael Arnon review Israel’s two decades of independence, describe its efforts to secure peace and express Israel’s appreciation of the friendship of the American Government and American Jewry’s solidarity with the people of Israel.

Herman C. Rothenberg, of Hewlett, N.Y. was re-elected to a second term as president of the Federation, an affiliate of the United Synagogue of America.