Six national Jewish organizations and sixty six Jewish community councils joined today in urging the adoption of federal legislation against discrimination in places of public accommodation, as proposed by the Kennedy Administration in its civil rights program.
The six national organizations are American Jewish Congress, 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. Together with the 66 community councils, all are affiliated in the National Community Relations Advisory Council through which they coordinate policies and programs.
“It is imperative,” they declared in a statement submitted to the Senate Commerce Committee, “that federal legislation be passed to eliminate discrimination in hotels, restaurants and other public facilities. It is the obligation of Congress to enact such legislation to ensure that those who have been promised equal rights will in fact receive them. Jews are not unfamiliar with the humiliation which results from approaching a facility supposedly open to the public and being turned away with either crudely anti-Semitic remarks or inadequate evasions which clearly reveal the bias of the speaker,” the statement stressed.
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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.
