Klutznick Urges Creation of New Unifying National Jewish Group

The creation of a new unifying national Jewish cooperative group that would “preserve the spirit of voluntarism” but which would allow the American Jewish community “to function generally in a more orderly and non-competitive fashion” was urged by Philip M. Klutznick last night addressing the 65th annual meeting of the National Conference of Jewish Communal Service here. Using the United Nations as an example, he said that if the United States and Russia could belong to the UN, then all Jewish groups should be able to get together.

Mr. Klutzinick, former Deputy U.S. Representative to the United Nations and former president of the B’nai B’rith, described this new coordinating group as something less than “a kehillah type community” but something more than the present loosely organized President’s conference, of which he was at one time chairman.

He proposed that a task force of 15 to 25 experts of varying viewpoints “selected for their knowledge of the problems of Jewish organizational life in America” should be chosen by the presidents of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Yeshiva University, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Brandeis University. These four educators, who would be members of the study group, would choose the balance of the membership and “set up the rules for convening the conference and the publication of the report,” he said.

The working group’s sole purpose “would be to try and find a basis for a live and modern discussion of the problem of community organization rather than the sterile debate of unity versus voluntarism,” he said. Stating that he realized the difficulties inherent in the creation of a central Jewish cooperative group, Mr. Klutznick, referring to his UN experience, asked: “Are Jewish organizations and Jewish communal groups in America more sovereign than either the United States or the Soviet? Certainly,” he pointed out, “they have more in common ideologically, no matter what their differences, than have these two sovereign powers.”

The core group, as Mr. Klutznick saw it, must “produce the germ of an idea that would capture all of the precious attributes of voluntarism and install the ingredient essential for the attainment of realizable harmonization and cooperation.” He said such cooperation was not a “luxury” but rather that “at this stage of American Jewish history, it may well be a necessity from which we cannot escape.” He stated that the study he proposed might cost between $50,000 and $100,000, and urged that such a fund be provided by a foundation or a group of individuals.

He warned against the dangers of pushing for the European Kehillan type unity. Those who urge it, he said, “are not too knowledgeable as to the depth of feeling against such an instrument and the real disunity that could be generated if an attempt to create it was seriously undertaken. Such a campaign would set back the cause of cooperative engagement a good number of years.”

He also warned against those who “use the argument for voluntarism as a mandate for unorganized chaos or a license that permits only ‘ad hoc’ cooperation.” This viewpoint, he claimed, expressed an unwillingness to exercise the maximum rights of voluntarism which is to make the most of freedom to organize through cooperation and harmonization.” He said he accepted the right of an organization to “refuse to enter into any program” and said “perhaps only one major American Jewish organization goes that far” but that similarly the American Jewish community is “likewise entitled to assess its value and its philosophy in the light of today’s world” and that the greatest discipline the community has is to “provide or withhold community support based upon such assessment.”

UNITED HIAS DIRECTOR REPORTS ON AMERICAN IMMIGRATION POLICY

James P. Rice, executive director of United Hias Service, addressing the National Conference today on the meaning of a liberalized United States Immigration policy for the American Jewish community, reported that 46 percent of the migrants and refugees the agency helped to resettle last year came to the United States. He called this a “direct result of the permanent features of the parolee law, Public Law 87-810, which was signed by the President on June 28, 1962. The enactment of liberalized immigration legislation, he said, “would enable us further to extend our efforts in making the United States one of the major countries for Jewish migrants the world over.”

Jacob T. Zukerman of New York, executive director and chief counsel of the Family Location Service, was elected president of the National Conference today. He succeeds Philip Soskis, also of New York. Other officers elected were Bertram H. Gold of Los Angeles, first vice-president; Maurice Bernstein of New York, second vice-president; Solomon Geld of Clifton, New Jersey; treasurer; and William Avrunin, of Detroit, Michigan, who was re-elected secretary. Named to the executive committee were Emanuel Berlatsky, of New York; Bernard Goldstein of Dallas, Texas; Mrs. Martha K. Selig of New York; and Manheim Shapiro of New York.

Mr. Zukerman heads Family Location Service, a member agency of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York specializing in problems of family breakdown. A member of the bar, he is a graduate of the New York University Law School and the New York School of Social Work. He has been active in many communal organization and is national president of the Workmen’s Circle, and national vice-chairman of the Jewish Labor Committee.