As Abraham Chasanow, Jewish employee of the Navy Hydrographic Office cleared last week of disloyalty charges, returns to work tomorrow for the first time in 13 months, the status of four other Jewish employes of the same office, neighbors of Chasanow at Greenbelt, Md., remains unclear this week-end. The Navy has refused to provide any information about the four other Jews dismissed as “security risks” at the same time Chasanow had been fired, despite the fact that the charges against the four were virtually the same as against Chasanow.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy James H. Smith, who cleared Chasanow and declared the man had been falsely accused, has refused to say anything about the four, leaving it to the individuals to make their own statements. It is understood that one is fighting the charges against him vigorously; while another filed a formal answer to the “disloyalty” accusations.
Newspaper editorials over the week-end strongly commended the Navy for its action in clearing Chasanow. The Anti-Defamation League, in a statement by national president Henry E. Schultz, expressed the hope that the Navy would take “punitive action against Chasanow’s irresponsible accusers.” The statement likened the Chasanow case to the situation at Ft. Monmouth where, the ADL said, “security regulations gave room to the bigoted and the prejudiced for irresponsible charges.”
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