The National Physicians Committee, a registered Congressional lobbying group which has the approval of the American Medical Association, today denied charges of encouraging racial discrimination made against it earlier this week by a meeting of the New York County Medical Society, an affiliate of the A.M.A. The denial was voiced by John M. Pratt, administrator of the National Physicians Committee.
The charges were precipitated by the Committee’s mailing letters to 160,000 physicians throughout the country which were addressed: “Dear Christian American.” The letters were reprints of a circular written by the Rev. Dan Gilbert, one-time editor of The Defender, anti-Semitic publication of Gerald Winrod, who was indicted for sedition in 1942.
The New York medical group also asked its parent body to “deplore” the letter and to withdraw its endorsement of the National Physicians Committee, Similar action was taken by the Brooklyn and Queens Medical Societies at earlier meetings. An A.M.A. spokesman has declared that no official of the medical association saw the Gilbert letter before it was mailed.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
