Major national Jewish organizations and Jewish community councils in various parts of the country, commenting on President Eisenhower’s State of the Union message, today hailed his appeal to the Congress for elimination in this session of inequities and discriminatory provisions in the immigration law.
They also applauded his declaration that in the continuing fight against Communist subversion, traditional American rights and liberties would be protected. They regretted the absence from his message of any recommendations for civil rights legislation, and expressed the hope that this would be rectified in later messages.
Their statement was released by the National Community Relations Advisory Council, joint policy-forming and planning body for the American Jewish Congress, Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish War Veterans of the United States, the national religious groups and regional and local Jewish community councils.
“The President’s call upon Congress to revise in this session the inequitable and discriminatory McCarran-Walter Immigration Act is most gratifying.” The statement says: “We hope that the President will use the great influence of his office to press for the complete overhaul of this law, which is so inconsistent with our nation’s responsibilities in today’s world and our national traditions of freedom and equality and of hospitality to people of all nations, races and creeds. If his demand for action in this session is to be met, legislative action must speedily be undertaken. We look for the immediate introduction of appropriate bills and for early hearings on them.
URGE FEDERAL LAW AGAINST DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT
“We commend the President on his forthright declaration that American traditions and the basic rights of citizens will be carefully preserved as the feretting out and destruction of Communist subversion continues. It has been evident for a long time that thorough re-examination of the means by which these two purposes may be most effectively pursued is urgently needed. We call for such a re-examination now, under auspices free from partisan influences, so that we may have reliable guides to the preservation both of our security and our basic liberties.
“It is to be regretted that the President omitted altogether from his message all reference to the continuing need for Congressional action to insure the protection of our citizens in those equal rights and opportunities guaranteed to them in our Constitution, regardless of race, creed or color,” the statement continues.
It concludes by stating that the Jewish organizations will “continue to call for the prohibition by Federal law of discrimination in employment and for the protection of other civil rights,” and expresses the hope “that the omission from this message of a request for such laws will be rectified by the President in a message at a later date calling for a full legislative program on civil rights.”
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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.
