Hoffman Condemns Malik’s Attack on Israel, Zionists; Assails Jdl Tactics

“Wanton violence” and “repeated harassments against the persons and properties of the Soviet delegations” to the United Nations must not be made a pretext for “the vilification of any racial or religious groups” from the platform of the UN, Philip E. Hoffman, president of the American Jewish Committee said this weekend at the annual dinner of the AJCommittee’s policy-making National Executive Council.

Hoffman referred to the attacks on Israel and Zionists by Soviet Ambassador Yakov Malik in the General Assembly following a sniper attack 10 days ago on an apartment occupied by the Soviet Mission. The AJCommittee president appealed to UN Secretary General U Thant and Adam Malik of Indonesia, President of the General Assembly, to prevent “such dangerous and insidious actions.”

The sniper attack has not been officially attributed to any group but a young member of the Jewish Defense League was arrested and charged with illegal procurement of the rifle said, “We are also appalled that these irrational acts by a small group of irresponsible rabble-rousers have been used to justify a vicious and vulgar campaign of calumny and defamation against Jews and Judaism by the Soviet delegates and their Arab collaborators in the halls of the United Nations.”

Referring to the Middle East, Hoffman said:” Our first concern is the achievement of a stable and enduring peace…Israel must of course be kept strong, ready and able to repel attacks by those still dedicated to her destruction,” He observed that within Israel “we also have a concern as to how democracy will fare, how Israel deals with inequities within her own borders, for this, inevitably, has an impact upon the status of Jews everywhere in the world.” With respect to Soviet Jews. Hoffman said American Jews must intensify their efforts “to release from bondage those who wish to leave, to help those who wish to remain to live as Jews within the Soviet Union, free from oppression.”