“Public instruction in the hands of reactionary governments has been in the past and can become again a perversion of true education,” Dr. Maurice L. Perlzweig, representative of the World Jewish Congress, warned the United Nations Commission on Human Rights today. The Jews of Europe “martyred by the Nazi education for genocide program were proof of the fact that a textbook can be as lethal as a gun,” he told the Human Rights Commission.
He criticized American and British amendments on education in the proposed draft Covenant on Human Rights. These amendments, he said, weaken the clause which provides that “education shall encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms” and “shall promote understanding, tolerance and freedom among all nations, racial and religious groups.”
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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.