Jewish Congress Meeting in Britain Hits Rearmament of Germany

A call for a reversal of the trend toward the rearmament of Germany was voiced here last night by the British Section of the World Jewish Congress at the concluding session of its eighth biennial convention. The Congress also condemned the “glorification” of former Nazi Party and military leaders in the press and in films.

The WJC appealed to the Governments of Hungary, Rumania and Czechoslovakia to free arrested Jewish leaders and “thereby make a genuine contribution to the cause of peace and international understanding.” In the same resolution, the Congress pointed out that the Rumanian Jewish leaders had been imprisoned for as long as two years without any charges being placed against them.

Finally, the meeting expressed its concern and resentment at the Arab states’ rejection of Israel efforts to make peace, and deplored the “policy and action of those governments which continue to supply weapons to the Arab states.”

In an address to the conference yesterday, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the WJC, appealed to British Jewry to end its internal “petty squabbles” and said that there was no reason for the Board of Deputies of British Jews to fear that the British section of the Congress would attempt to undermine its authority. At the same time, he said the British section would not cede its right to approach the British Government in behalf of the World Jewish Congress.

A. L. Easterman, WJC leader, reported on the “grim and perilous situation” of the Jews of North Africa who, he charged, have been neglected by world Jewry. He expressed the opinion that in North Africa Jewry faces its gravest problem since Hitler threatened and carried out his threat to destroy European Jewry.