Jewish Groups Urged to Become More Involved in Broad-based Coalitions

American Jewish organizations were urged at a national conference here to become more involved in broad-based coalitions that are actively trying to solve urgent problems facing urban centers in the United States. The call to participate more in seeking reforms in employment programs, the welfare system, public education and housing was made at the annual Plenary Session of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC) by three Jewish community relations experts representing national organizations and regional groups.

Theodore R. Mann, of Philadelphia, was reelected to a second one-year term as chairman of NJCRAC. Among the major actions taken by the Plenary was a unanimous decision to boycott meetings in states that fail to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and approval, also unanimously, of a statement condemning continued Soviet intimidation of Jews.

The latter statement was adopted after news was received of the arrest of Soviet Jewish physicist Grigory Goldstein who has been unable to find employment after being dismissed from his job when he applied for an emigration visa. Goldstein, 46, from Tibilisi, was arrested on Jan. 16 and is awaiting trial on charges of “parasitism.” (In reports today from Moscow, it was learned that Soviet authorities have dropped the parasitism charge but have warned Goldstein to find a job.)

The ERA action was taken following an address by Rep. Yvonne B. Burke (D. Calif.) who urged Jewish organizations to get behind the drive to ratify the amendment. It was resolved that the 1979 Plenary Session of the NJCRAC will be held in a state that voted for ratification. The task of formulating a position to guide Jewish community relations agencies in dealing with American Nazis was referred to a special committee that will report to the executive committee at a later date.

REASONS FOR INVOLVEMENT CITED

The importance of Jewish organizational involvement in seeking cures for urban ills was stressed by Dr. Daniel Thursz, executive vice-president of B’nai B’rith International; George L. Spectre, associate director of the B’nai B’rith division of public affairs; and Meyer Fine, executive secretary of the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Community Federation of Metropolitan New Jersey.

Fine said the need for Jewish involvement in causes which might not, at first sight, have immediate and direct calling on Jewish resources, was necessary because “Jewish security in the United States can only be strengthened and expanded by us through renewed, intensified efforts to create a better and more just society for all Americans.”

He urged support for the Humphrey-Hawkins bill for full employment, a grave problem in his own state which has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. “Amelioration can only be obtained through national measures, most likely in the form of public jobs created by the federal government,” he said.

Thursz called the “welfare system” not a system as such but rather a conglomoration of 200 federal programs whose bureaucracy absorbed on unconscionable amount of the funds intended for the poor. He called for Jewish community support for President Carter’s “Program for Better Jobs and Income.” He observed that “the Jewish community, by example and encouragement, can help the American people accept the need and urgency of welfare reform.”