An appeal to American Jewry for “a supreme effort to secure the existence” of Israel, as an implementation of “the desire of the 6,000,000 Jews murdered during the Nazi era, was sounded here tonight by Israel Attorney General Gideon Hausner. He delivered the principal address to more than 1,200 delegates and guests at B’nai B’rith’s triennial convention banquet.
Avoiding any direct reference to the Adolf Eichmann trial, in which he served as Israel’s chief prosecutor, Mr. Hausner, a surprise speaker whose appearance was not previously announced, said that the moral to be learned from the Nazi holocaust is that “every surviving Jew has now to do for his people not only what he would have done anyway, but more. Included in the audience that heard him paint a dramatic and moving picture of Nazi brutality were Government officials, members of Congress and representatives of the diplomatic corps.
The Israeli official asserted that Hitlerian terror has left world Jewry “crippled,” and said that, to assure continuance of Jewry’s existence, “we must make up for the cataclysmic losses in manpower and spiritual values.” Pointing out that Israel offered the basis for such hope, he asked for “a supreme effort to secure its existence, to insure its development so that it will be able to implement the hopes which hinge upon it. We will surely thereby implement the desire of those 6,000,000 who have constantly prayed and yearned for the State, but never lived to see it,” he said.
He called also for greater concern in Jewish problems on the part of all world Jewry. “We must look for proper solutions, we must strengthen our Jewish education, in other words.” He added, “We must be even better Jews than we are.” He warned that the world must be on constant alert against a resurgence of the anti-Semitic terror which stalked Europe under Hitler. “Hatred must be faced and combated, he said, “Wherever we recognize the well-known signs of anti-Semitism, of prejudice, of the denial of a common obligation between one human being and others, they must be denounced and fought.”
B’NAI B’RITH LEADERS CONFER WITH KENNEDY, PRESENT SYMBOLS OF JUDAISM
Earlier in the day, leaders of B’nai B’rith, led by Mrs. Moe Kudler, of Los Angeles, president of B’nai B’rith Women, and Label A. Katz, of New Orleans, national president of B’nai B’rith, conferred privately for over a half-hour with President Kennedy. Mr. Katz said the discussions ranged over matters pertaining to civil rights, Soviet Jewry, and the Middle East. The delegation, he said, found the President’s reactions on these issues “reassuring.”
The B’nai B’rith leaders presented to the President a silver relief design including a seven-branch menorah flanked by the “lamp of learning” and the Ten Commandments. The work had been executed by William Myers, of Newark, N.J. Included in the delegation at the White House were Maurice Bisgyer, executive vice-president of B’nai B’rith; and Frank Goldman, of Lowell. Mass., honorary president of B’nai B’rith.
JAVITS, HUMPHREY ADDRESS CONVENTION; DR. SALK HONORED
The guest of honor at the banquet tonight was Dr. Jonas A. Salk, developer of anti-polio vaccine. He was presented with a citation for his achievements. Another principal speaker, in addition to Mr. Hausner, was Senator Jacob K. Javits, New York Republican, who told the audience that American failure, thus far, to accede to the United Nations Convention Against Genocide is inconsistent “with our position of championing the rule of law in the conduct of nations.”
Senator Javits told of opposition to the Genocide Pact, voiced in 1953 by the late Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, on the grounds that the Soviet Union and some of its satellite states had ratified it. He quoted Mr. Dulles as testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee at that time that “the solution of the problem as envisaged by that treaty could better be reconsidered at a later date.”
Citing the problem in more current terms. Senator Javits asked: “Who has not felt a tremor of fear at the recent reports of the nature of Soviet persecution of Jews for alleged economic offenses As long as the spectre of genocide continues to haunt mankind,” he said, “the United States has a basic international obligation to assume the responsibilities of this Convention.”
In an address last night, Democratic Senator Hubert Humphrey, of Minnesota, majority whip, told the convention he would “never be content until our foreign policy has been able to bring about a fulfillment of the unfilled commitment in the Middle East.” Without specific reference to any current events, Senator Humphrey cited as one of those commitments the United Nations pledge in 1956, guaranteeing Israel free access to international waterways.
Asserting that “Israel’s example of freedom in the Middle East is a powerful force,” the Minnesota lawmaker said that, although there are Congressional critics of U.S. aid to Israel, “they will never win out.”
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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.
