Daniel P. Moynihan, the new White House Assistant for Urban Affairs, urged today that the Jewish community “not turn inward” because of Negro hostility and remove itself for the struggle for racial equality. While recognizing the dilemma facing Jewish groups created by a rise in anti-Semitism, “this is no time for turning back,” he told the annual meeting of the B’nai B’rith board of governors.
Making his first public speech since joining the Nixon Administration, Dr. Moynihan said that “organizations such as B’nai B’rith were never more needed than today in the cause of equality.” He said the nation will have paid “a very heavy price” if such traditional elements in the fight against prejudice and discrimination as the Jewish community withdraws from the effort for racial justice.
“Anti-Semitic feelings have come open in a way which we thought we were finally done with,” Mr. Moynihan said. “You have been alarmed, hurt and offended by this–and you ought to be.” But citing the racial crisis as the major domestic problem confronting the nation, he said that no matter “what the provocations of the moment, the great commitment has to be to those who have the least.”
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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.
