The New York Board of Rabbis has extended “heartfelt sympathy to all the people of Puerto Rico and particularly to the families of the pilgrims who, while visiting the Holy Land, were gunned down mercilessly by hired Japanese murderers.” Rabbi William Berkowitz, Board president, told Gov. Luis A. Ferre in a letter that “we mourn the loss of these pious citizens who came to the Holy Land to be inspired by the shrines sacred to Christendom.”
“This premeditated and heartless slaughter of innocent human beings was compounded.” Rabbi Berkowitz continued, “by the statement of the Arab terrorists in Lebanon, who gleefully took ‘credit’ for instigating this act of barbarism which is abhorrent to all civilized people…. We join you in the hope that the government of Lebanon and those of other countries will cease giving sanctuary to groups whose sole aim is destruction and murder.” Rabbi Berkowitz and Rabbi Harold H. Gordon, executive vice president, also cabled Pope Paul VI and United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim to urge action to curb terrorism.
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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.
