A sharp protest against the sponsorship by the National Education Association of four round-the-world tours for school teachers, which exclude Jewish teachers in deference to the entry requirements of Arab countries was voiced yesterday by the national board of Hadassah.
Mrs. Rebecca Shulman, national president, speaking in behalf of the organization’s 300,000 members throughout the country declared in a communication to the National Education Association that the fact that the Arab states, and not the NEA, have barred American Jews from entry, does not “absolve you of the moral responsibility to uphold the principles of equality and religious freedom set forth in the American Constitution.”
Noting that the NEA, as the largest organization of teachers in the United States, has “the additional responsibility of maintaining high moral standards for the millions of children who look to you for guidance and direction, “Mrs. Shulman stated: “As mothers of children attending schools in which your members teach, we protest with all the vigor at our command, your acquiescence to a discriminatory policy which tends to divide American citizens into separate groups and which encourages the forces of bigotry and intolerance.”
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.
