Jewish Groups Seek Prompt Congressional Action on Immigration

Five major national Jewish organizations, in a joint statement today, commended President Eisenhower for his special message to Congress last week calling for immigration law revisions. They called for prompt congressional action, in accordance with the President’s urging, commenting that delay could only be ascribed to a deliberate intent to forestall action.

Joining in the statement were the Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A., Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and United Synagogue of America. The President’s message was also lauded by the United Hias Service, Jewish immigration agency, in a separate statement.

The Jewish organizations coupled their commendation of the President with an expression of hope that his recommendation for asylum to victims of communist persecution would be enlarged to include “succor to the equally tragic victims of oppression and persecution at the hands of other tyrannies.

The desperate plight of Egyptian Jews, who are at this moment being systematically plundered, impoverished and forced to flee by the Nasser dictatorship, surely should command our sympathy and our help, just as do the sufferings of the Hungarian refugees from Red despotism, ” they asserted. They approved the President’s recommendations for quota increases, redistribution of quotas and pooling of unused quotas, while calling again – as they have done for a number of years – for total abandonment of the national origins quota system.

Murray 1. Gurfein, president of United Hias Service, said that the President’s recommendation was a great step in the right direction. ” He expressed hopes that the President’s request for the admission of victims of communism would be broadened to include “other victims of political and religious persecution. “

JEWISH CONGRESS WANTS EISENHOWER TO ACT ON REFUGEES FROM EGYPT

The American Jewish Congress did not join in the praise for President Eisenhower’s message. A statement issued by Dr. Israel Goldstein, AJC president, expressed dismay that President Eisenhower had failed to make the slightest reference to the plight of the Jewish refugees from Egypt.

“The entire world is aware that 10, 000 Jews have already been driven from Egypt and the remaining 40, 000 face the same fate, ” Dr. Goldstein said. “Yet, the President, who rightfully lays great stress on the importance of affording immediate emergency relief for the refugees from Hungarian tyranny and also provides for future relief for victims of Communist persecution and tyranny, does not even mention the plight of refugees from Egyptian persecution and tyranny. “

Dr. Goldstein charged that “this omission implies that there are distinctions to be made among tyrannies and that the great and honored American tradition of affording a haven for refugees and other victims of dictatorships is to be limited only to victims of Communist oppression. “

“We therefore call upon the President to send a supplementary message to the Congress stating the equal need for immediate immigration aid to refugees from Egyptian persecution and tyranny, ” Dr. Goldstein said.