Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican Presidential candidate, in a talk with Maxwell Abbell, president of the United Synagogue of America, expressed his opposition to discriminatory provisions of the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act and said he would work for their repeal if he were elected, Mr. Abbell disclosed today. The General expressed doubts however that he would make any public statement on this subject before election.
Mr. Abbell quoted Gen. Eisenhower as declaring that “the Jewish people could not have a better friend than me.” He told Mr. Abbell that he had never met any Jews until he enrolled in the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, but he said he had been reared with his brothers in the teachings of the Old Testament.
“I grew up believing that the Jews were the chosen people,” Mr. Abell quoted the general as saying, “that they gave us the high ethical and moral principles of our civilization.” Mr. Abbell stressed that his endorsement of Gen. Eisenhower was “purely personal” and did not extend to synagogue organizations with which he is associated.
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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.
