Maciver Report Lauded and Attacked at N.c.r.a.c. Plenary Session

The differences of opinion on the MacIver Report prevailing among the various Jewish groups engaged in combating anti-Semitism in the United States were given expression here today at the plenary session of the National Community Relations Advisory Council, the central coordinating body of Jewish organizations engaged in fighting bigotry in this country.

A slashing attack nn the MacIver Report was made by Jacob Blaustein, president of the American Jewish Committee, following the presentation of recommendations by the N.C.R.A.C. ‘s Evaluative Studies Committee. Mr. Blaustein said that Prof. MacIver’s statement of principles on community relations work was acceptable, but not his practical proposals. These proposals, he insisted, “dangerously minimized the ideological differences of the national agencies” and would create a monolithic structure of Jewish life in America.

The MacIver proposals, Mr. Blaustein argued, would cause the national agencies to lose their autonomy. The American Jewish Committee would never agree to that, he emphasized. The recommendations of the Evaluative Studies Committee, he declared, were not a substitute for the MacIver Report, but accepted the premises of that report and would implement it.

Philip M. Kutznick, speaking for the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, said that the proposals submitted by the Evaluative Committee would change the character of the N.C.R.A.C. from a voluntary association of voluntary agencies

Henry Epstein, former New York State Solicitor General, placed before the convention–in the name of the Anti-Defamation League–a series of counter- proposals which he said would retain the character of a voluntary body but would strengthen its efforts at joint planning.

JEWISH CONGRESS, LABOR COMMITTEE BACK RECOMMENDATIONS

Or. David Petegorsky, executive director of the American Jewish Congress,

Adolph Held, of the Jewish Labor Committee, announced that his organization declared its agreement with the recommendations of the Evaluative Studies Committee. “We are for centralized planning of activities, he said. “We believe in the assignment of special duties to the organizations and committees best fitted to perform them. “

Joseph F. Barr of Washington, speaking for the Jewish War Veterans, said the organization agreed with the major part of the MacIver Report estimates and conclusions. “We fully endorse the recommendation for an all-agency strategy caucus and the establishment by the N.C.R.A.C. of a special committee charged with the task of reposing an operational program in the community relations field for the agencies as a whole, “he declared.

Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, told the conference ‘the time has come to call a halt to an inter faith program which presents the church, on one hand, and leaves the synagogue in the back-ground on the other. ” He declared that “in seeking realistically to build an inter-kith movement and an interfaith program the synagogue and its representatives must be the focal point of American interfaith work. “

He urged that the synagogue be charged with exclusive responsibility of safeguarding and representing Judaism while conceding to others the prerogatives of safeguarding and representing Jews. He said the Union, with its sister agencies,, could work out a method of operation and declared it was uniquely qualified to take the lead in interfaith work if financial support were forthcoming.