Jewish Organizations Present Their View to Republican Convention

The Republican Platform Committee was urged today by ten major national Jewish religious and community relations organizations to adopt a platform plank pledging action “to counter current discrimination against U.S. citizens on the basis of religion and to preserve the integrity of United States citizenship.”

The views of the organizations were presented to the Platform Committee meeting at the Sheraton-Palace Hotel here by Col. Harold Reigelman of New York, civic leader and member of the New York delegation to the Convention; John W. Dinkelspiel, a GOP delegate from San Francisco, a member of the Permanent Organization Committee of the Republican National Committee, and Mendel Silberberg, prominent Republican and civic leader of Los Angeles.

The Jewish groups explained that their proposed plank deals with “the widespread campaign by Arab League countries against American citizens of Jewish faith–a campaign that is being acquiesced in and condoned by our own government.” They called for “an immediate end to the practice of screening United States troops and personnel that are to be sent to foreign lands” on the basis of religion; “a firm statement of government policy that violations of anti-discrimination laws are not justified by a desire to yield to the prejudices of foreign nations; and “an express anti-bias clause in all treaties and executive agreements.”

The 10 groups are the American Jewish Congress, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish War Veterans of the U.S., Rabbinical Council of America, Rabbinical Assembly of America, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, United Synagogue of America, and the National Community Relations Advisory Council.

The statement presented in the names of these groups to the Platform Committee enumerates the following forms of discrimination: Arab denial of entry or transit visas to American Jews; Arab boycott of American Jewish businesses; exclusion of American Jewish citizens from U.S. government civilian and military posts and from employment on U.S. defense contracts in Arab countries.

CRITICIZE WASHINGTON ON ARAB DISCRIMINATION AGAINST U.S. JEWS

The Jewish organizations stressed that they are concerned with the discriminatory practices of Arab countries not only because of their direct effects on American citizens but also because of the attitude of the U.S. government in response to these practices.

“Our government,” their statement emphasized, “has been screening troops so as to exclude Jews from assignment to our base in Saudi Arabia. Our government has pleaded for special exceptions in state FEPC laws to allow American concerns to engage in otherwise illegal employment discrimination against Jews. Our government pays subsidies for shipment of wheat and other agricultural commodities to Arab countries, although American Jews are barred from such-trade.”

Such concessions at the expense of the integrity of U.S. citizenship were castigated in the statement as “a perversion of traditional and basic American doctrine.” The statement cited the action of President Taft in 1911 in abrogating a treaty with czarist Russia because of Russian anti-Semitism. “The claim of freedom has always been of greater force and dignity than the claim of profit,” the statement declared.

The Jewish groups quoted with approval the unanimous resolution of the U.S. Senate of July 26 that distinctions among U.S. citizens based on their religious affiliation are “incompatible with the relations that should exist among friendly nations” and that “in all negotiations between the United States and any foreign state every reasonable effort should be made to maintain this principle.”

The statement concluded: “Despite these indications of awakened concern by some agencies of our government much remains to be done. A forthright statement in the platform of your party will bring us closer to action that will put an end to the present disgraceful situation.”

REPUBLICANS URGED TO “CORRECT” WASHINGTON’S MIDDLE EAST STAND

Col. Riegelman, in urging adoption of the plank, told the Republican drafting group that “any reluctance of the United States Government to correct the Middle Eastern conditions above described is a retrogressive reversal of historic policy, clearly inconsistent with our government’s laudable interest in establishing and maintaining here and abroad equality of opportunity and treatment of our citizens of all races, creeds and origins.”

He called on the Republican Convention to put on record “its solemn and dedicated purpose to resist, repel and reject” any design by any foreign power to reduce any American to second class citizenship because of race, creed or color. “If we will not tolerate this discrimination at home,” Col. Riegelman said, “surely we cannot tolerate it abroad without destroying that concept which is the essence of our institutions and of our self respect as a free nation.”

Mr. Dinkelspiel told the Platform Committee: “No principle of international law requires the U.S. to discriminate against its own citizens or to permit other countries to force it to do so. The soundness of the plank being urged for your consideration and approval was established by the Senate of the United States when on July 26 of this year it unanimously adopted Senate Resolution 323.

“The Republican Party is dedicated to the preservation of all basic and fundamental rights of Americans. The adoption of the plank being urged at this time would be consistent with the Party’s great tradition and would assure the people that the words contained in the Senate resolution would put into action and put an end to the continued unwarranted and unjustified discrimination against certain American citizens.”