‘priority Status’ for Three Jewish Problems Advocated by B’nai B’rith

The American Jewish community was called on tonight to strengthen its programs of Jewish education, prod the free world to “affirmative recognition” of USSR discrimination against Soviet Jews and develop a “more mature understanding” between itself and Israel to clarify “the some what distorted image each has of the other.”

Label A. Katz of New Orleans, president of B’nai B’rith, advocated “priority status” for these problems, saying they represent “the major challenge to a creative Jewish survival in the decade ahead.” Addressing the opening session of B’nai B’rith’s 117th annual meeting at the Waldorf Astoria, Mr. Katz stressed the complexities surrounding these three issues but said American Jewry “living in a free society has the moral duty to explore ways that can lead to solutions.”

Reviewing the relationships between American and Israel Jews, Mr. Katz warned that “beyond the good intentions they have toward one another, there is a widening gap in their realistic understanding of each other’s cultural mores and aspirations.” He emphasized that the common bonds of religion, history and heritage make each community “a partner in Jewish enterprise and creativity.”

The B’nai B’rith leader decried the fact that too many American Jews “find a vicarious outlet for their Jewishness” in the existence of Israel. At the same time, he said, they “distort the genuine personality of Israel by asking that it conform to an abstract image far removed from reality.” He said American Jews need to “replace easy sentiment with hard reality” and become aware of Israel life “as it actually is and not as we tend to romanticize it.”

The Israeli, Mr. Katz continued, “misreads American Jewish life” by refusing to accept it “as a permanent and creative force.” Instead, he regards it as “only an interlude” in Jewish life. “This is particularly so among young sabras who find it difficult to comprehend the existence of a flourishing Jewish life in free lands where Jews are a minority people,” he added.

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST JEWS IN THE SOVIET UNION EMPHASIZED

Foreseeing the “likelihood of another try at stabilizing East-West co-existence,” Mr. Katz asked that the free world take “affirmative recognition of the Soviet Union’s efforts to make cultural cripples of 3,000,000 Soviet Jews.” He said the destruction of Jewish community life in the Soviet Union is a “calculated Kremlin policy” accomplished by secret administrative decrees that violate the constitutional equality of ethnic groups and nationalities under Soviet law.

“The discriminations directed against Soviet Jews are two-pronged, denying them the right to live as Jews in their homeland and to leave voluntarily for lands more hospitable to Jewish life,” Mr. Katz said. “A nation’s treatment of its minority groups is a barometer of its political character and civilization. For its treatment of Jews, the Soviet Union stands indicted–even by its own Marxist ideology.” the B’nai B’rith president said.

There are reasons to believe that the Kremlin “is sensitive to the embarrassing dilemma” of its anti-Jewish policy, the B’nai B’rith leader stated. “One consequence has seemingly caught the Kremlin by surprise. That is the persistent group consciousness which is sustained among Soviet Jews. Many young Jews whom Soviet leaders hoped to rush into total assimilation now cling as best they can, yet more desperately than ever, tot their religious heritage,” Mr. Katz pointed out.

“Premier Khrushchev once condemned the excesses in Stalin’s program during the 1948-53 period in which more than 450 Jewish intellectuals were purged,” he continued. “But there is no indication that Khrushchev has removed the restrictions that are destroying the religious and cultural existence of the second largest Jewish community in the world.” What Jews in the free world seek from the present Communist regime is not preferential treatment for Soviet Jews but equality with other nationalities in accord with Soviet law, Mr. Katz said.

Defining Jewish education as “the root of Jewish existence,” Mr. Katz proposed that B’nai B’rith “act as a catalyst for a deeper, more abundant quality to Jewish education in the United States.” He said that American Jews are “a community eager and proud to be Jewish,” but because of weak educational opportunities “they are unsure of how to be Jewish in a more meaningful way.”

ABRAHAM FEINBERG PRESENTED WITH B’NAI B’RITH MEDAL

More than 1,300 persons attended a B’nai B’rith dinner held in honor of Abraham Feingerg of New York, chairman of the Israel Bond Organization and active leader in other national Jewish programs. The dinner was addressed by former President Harry S. Truman, Philip M. Klutznick, chairman of the International Council, and Dr. Abram L. Sacher, president of Brandeis University. The three speakers lauded Mr. Feinberg and the work of the B’nai B’rith. B’nai B’rith president Label A. Katz presented Mr. Feinberg with the organization’s highest award, the B’nai B’rith President’s Medal, citing him for “responsible and creative leadership during a crisis decade of great Jewish achievement.”