Jewish support for “full equality” for Negroes, despite anti-Semitism voiced recently by “Black demagogues,” was urged this weekend by the National Community Relations Advisory Council. The Council is the coordinating body of nine national Jewish agencies and 80 local Jewish community councils concerned with interracial and interreligious problems.
The directive, which was released in the Council’s “Guide to Program Planning for Jewish Community Relations in 1967-1968,” declared that its member agencies have a “continuing obligation” to interpret and to combat anti-Semitism among Negroes. It also warned against mistaking “legitimate protest” by Negroes for anti-Semitism, and against “exaggerating the true dimensions” of anti-Jewish expressions that may arise.
The guide added that the Jewish community should not be “defected from its support of equality for Negroes on the ground that they are anti-Semitic. Such a “deflection” would be both “self-defeating” and a repudiation of “a fundamental tenet of Jewish tradition — equal justice for all,” the report said.
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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.
