A resolution urging the U.S. Government to intensify the broadcasts of the “Voice of America” to Jews in countries behind the Iron Curtain was adopted here today at the concluding session of the annual conference of the Jewish Labor Committee at which Soviet Russia was accused of the spiritual genocide and physical enslavement of Jews.
Another resolution expressed the opposition of the 600,000 persons represented by the Jewish Labor Committee to the re-arming of Germany. The conference also pledged continued support to Israel.
The delegates endorsed the fight against racial bigotry and intolerance in the United States and stressed the role of Jewish labor in the life of the American Jewish community in the United States. They deplored the fact that some Jewish organizations permitted Communist elements in their ranks and urged these organizations “to clean house.”
The conference also adopted a resolution authorizing the administrative committee of the organization to present before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights “all the known facts concerning the cultural and spiritual destruction of Jewish life in the satellite countries and the Soviet Union,” and to demand that a thorough investigation of the matter be made by the United Nations.
The resolutions on Russia and the satellite countries were adopted following a report by Nathan Chanin, chairman of the administrative committee of the Jewish labor Committee. The report, based on information gathered by labor sources and J.L.C. agents both inside and outside the Iron Curtain brought out a picture showing that no sign of Jewish life remains in the Soviet Union today and that the spiritual liquidation of the Jewish people in the satellite countries goes on at a rapid pace.
Adolph Held, president of the Jewish Labor Committee, told the delegates that there was no people on earth that has suffered as much from Communism as has the Jews. Jacob Pat, executive secretary, revealed at the conference that about 1,000 Jews who were refused exit visas in Soviet satellite countries were rescued from this country by members of an “underground railroad” operated by the Jewish labor Committee.
Charles S. Zimmerman, vice-president of the International ladies Garment Workers Union, who recently returned from Israel, reported to the conference that “the most serious problem confronting the state of Israel remains the economic problem.” The only salvation for Israel is outside aid in the form of loans, investments and relief funds, Mr. Zimmerman said. This can come only from the United States, he added.
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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.
