Mrs. Joseph Willen, of New York, national president of the National Council of Jewish Women, warned Jewish parents tonight that, unless they fight harder for civil rights, their children may be lost to Jewish life.
In her keynote address to the opening session of the five-day biennial convention of the women’s educational and service organization here, Mrs. Willen told the more than 1,000 NCJW delegates from all over the country that “when we teach our children Jewish ethics and then they see us making it hard for a Negro to move in down the street, they learn not to respect either us or our values.”
The Council leader asserted that Jews are not doing enough to help achieve equal opportunity and that, like other Americans, they are “meeting their obligations through token statements, speeches and pointing out that the rabbi stood on a picket line.” A message to the convention from President Johnson hailed the NCJW for its work to create “equal opportunity for all.”
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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.
