Protest actions against the anti-Zionist resolution that was adopted last Monday in the General Assembly continued in many cities throughout the country over the weekend. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley joined with a large contingent of city, county and state officials and representatives of a wide cross-section of organizations to lead the local community in a mass demonstration and rally last Thursday night to express contempt and outrage over the Assembly resolution.
The rally, which drew some 6000 persons, was chaired by Rabbi Jacob M. Ott, president of the city’s American Zionist Federation and chairman of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation-Council Commission on the Middle East. They event which included statements by Mrs. Jay Lawrence Weinberg, president of the JF-C, and the Rev. Priscilla Chaplin, executive director of the Southern Council of Churches, was coordinated by the JF-C’s Community Relations Committee in cooperation with the Los Angeles Jewish Students Solidarity Committee.
In Cleveland, an Ad Hoc Committee of Students for Jewish Nationhood led a protest march on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. A spokesman said the rally, which lasted an hour, drew some 200 demonstrations. In Albany, N.Y., hundreds of students participated in a rally last Friday at the State University of New York at Albany (SUNYA) in support of Israel and against the UN measure. The rally was organized by the Jewish Coalition and Hillel.
SCHEDULED TRIPS CANCELLED
In New York, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations announced that it has cancelled 30 scheduled trips to Mexico and five to Turkey as part of its protest against the two countries for having voted for the anti-Zionist resolution.
In Washington, David M. Blumberg, president of B’nai B’rith, said his organization, which conducts an extensive group-tour program, has cancelled scheduled tours to Mexico and Brazil for the same reason and is reviewing its travel program to consider similar actions against countries “whose governments refused to take a stand against political anti-Semitism.” Jamaica and Greece, which abstained in the Assembly vote, have been prominent on B’nai B’rith tour schedules.
Following a meeting in Washington with senior officers of B’nai B’rith, Blumberg said the organization continues to support U.S. participation in the UN but would “campaign vigorously” for the U.S. to reduce its allocation to the UN’s regular budget and similarly cut or suspend American contributions to some of the specialized UN agencies and programs. “We advocate such action in the belief that the UN majority’s pocketbook nerve is the only nerve sensitive to moral considerations,” Blumberg declared.
The Zionist Organization of America announced in New York that it has undertaken a nationwide campaign to distribute lapel buttons with the inscription “Zionism, A Badge Of Honor.”
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