Bertram Reifkind, a department commander of the Jewish War Veterans, today sought the “immediate removal” of his name from a citizens committee planning a state welcome to King Saud of Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Reifkind, who is commander of the District of Columbia JWV Department, made the request in a letter to G. M. Thornett, secretary of the Board of Commissioners of Washington, D. C. He said his organization would not “in any way participate in this welcome to one who in our judgment is unworthy of being a guest of the American people.” Mr. Thornett had appointed Mr. Reifkind to the citizens committee.
In his letter, the JWV official denounced the Arab king’s “discrimination against American Jews,” and “the utter disregard of fundamental morality” of the Saudi government in its practice of slavery and slave trading. “American servicemen of Jewish faith, by decree of the absolute government of this monarch, are not allowed to serve as part of the American military force on the Dharan air base in Saudi Arabia, a base that is allegedly an integral part of America’s defense structures,” the JWV leader pointed out.
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