Jews Urged to Get out the Vote

American Jews were called upon yesterday to help get out the vote in the forthcoming primary, local and national elections by Dr. Judah J. Shapiro, president of the Labor Zionist Alliance. Addressing the LZA’s national executive committee, he stated that “the condition of Jews in any nation depends on how good a democracy it is.”

The Jewish position, Shapiro observed, “becomes reduced in circumstances where the economy and democracy are weak. It is therefore a genuine Jewish concern that the United States be strengthened for itself as well as for the ability of American Jews to come to the aid of Israel and Jews in need everywhere.” The need, he stressed, is to overcome the apathy and the indifference to the democratic process.

Referring to Israel, Shapiro said that the LZA has the obligation to re-emphasize its commitments to support of Israel while directing its attention to issues on the American scene. “In the months to come, Israel will surely be confronted with new pressures, with continued demonstrations of hostility on the part of the Arab world to its continued existence,” he said.

Israel, he added, “will require not only material support from American Jews but a vigilant attitude to frustrate any attacks upon it or attempt to weaken it. We may assume that as we approach the end of the United Nations mandate on the Golan Heights in May, there will be attempts to get Israel to make concessions that will weaken it in any future and possible attack.”

Shapiro greeted what he noted is the increasingly flexible position to “re-orient their past positions if it can lead to peace without danger to the State of Israel. The new involvement of Jordan in re-establishing its relations with the Palestinians on the West Bank is a most hopeful sign.”