Press Censures Republican Party Official for Attacking J.t.a

An attack made upon the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by an official of the Republican National Committee has been severely condemned by the English-Jewish press. Newspaper editorials voiced support of the JTA, and approved the statement by Louis P. Rocker, its president. Mr. Rocker had denounced the attack as a “shocking assault on freedom of the press” and had described its implied threats against Jewish organizations as “unprecedented in American political affairs.”

The attack was made on the JTA by Bernard Katzen, the Republican National Committee’s consultant on Jewish affairs, who accused JTA of partisan reporting. His complaint was coupled with the warning that since the JTA enjoyed the support of Jewish organizations, the agency had an additional responsibility “lest its behavior be laid at the door of these organizations.”

The Detroit Jewish News, in an editorial entitled “Erring Politician, “said that Mr. Katzen had “committed worse than a blunder when he resorted to high pressure in seeking publicity from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. That was the height of arrogance.”

The editorial added that “we heartily support Mr. Rocker’s position and we commend him for it. JTA owes an obligation to the communities it serves to present the facts – whether in the news stories or the exposes of our able Washington correspondent, Milton Friedman. An attempt to interfere with JTA’s commendable position is sheer arrogance.”

HIS THREATS CONDEMNED; CONSIDERED “ILL-ADVISED”

The American Jewish World of Minneapolis said that Mr. Katzen, in seeking to use “the cudgel of intimidation” on the JTA, “strikes a low blow.” It added: “The threat is hardly veiled – that unless JTA makes its dispatches consistently conform to a pro-Administration point of view, rather than letting news developments speak for themselves, steps will be taken to fix the ‘responsibility’ on any organizations which give JTA financial assistance. This would be ‘guilt by association’ apparently.

“The press does not stand ready to yield its freedom, its right to unrestricted expression, to threats, as its history makes completely clear; and Mr. Katzen has been singularly ill-advised even to make the gesture. The dignified reply of JTA’s president, Louis P. Rocker, constitutes an effective rejoinder to which we fully subscribe.”

The American Hebrew, of New York, in an editorial entitled “An Ill-Advised Move,” said that “although Mr. Katzen offered no bill of particulars in his letter, even if he were in a position to do so, we are impelled to say that he was extremely ill-advised in holding out the threat” that Jewish organizations supporting JTA would be held responsible for its actions.

“We would be the first to uphold Mr. Katzen’s right to criticize any news agency or newspaper,” the editorial declared. “Freedom of criticism is Inherent in freedom of the press. But threats of punitive action against the objects of one’s criticism are certainly not the road to preservation of a free press – an ideal which has been upheld eloquently by President Eisenhower and which we are sure Mr. Katzen shares with all of us.”

The Los Angeles Jewish Voice, in a front-page signed column by its publisher, Samuel B. Gach, said that Mr. Katzen “wound up his complaint with a veiled threat against the news agency and an amateurish attempt to assault of freedom of the press.”

The column added: “It is most important to remind our little Jewish dictator, attempting to earn his Republican oats at the expense of American traditionalism, that the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, or the Jewish journals which carry its releases, do not make the news. JTA merely reports it. If Katzen or the Republican National Committee or the Administration is unhappy with the reaction to the policies they have authored, solution lies with them.”

The Jewish Floridian, of Miami, in a column by Leo Mindlin, pointed out that Mr. Katzen stressed the Jewish community’s need to identify itself more closely with the government’s effort to contain international communism as well as with the need to consider this nation’s safety primarily.

“Insidiously,” the column declared, “the ‘dual allegiance’ charge levelled against Zionists is thus sounded with the implication that Jews care about neither, and his veiled threat against Jewish national organizations in the letter to Dr. Wise becomes reinforced.” (Dr. George S. Wise is chairman of the JTA board, to whom Mr. Katzen originally addressed his comments.)

Some of the English-Jewish newspapers also criticized Mr. Katzen for his attack on Mr. Irving Engel, president of the American Jewish Committee, whom he charged with being “partisan” for criticizing the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act which is being opposed by all major Jewish and liberal organizations. Mr. Engel refuted the charge, emphasizing that the American Jewish Committee favors revision of the McCarran-Walter Act because, since its establishment, in 1906, the AJC has been keenly concerned with immigration legislation.