An American rabbi castigated the organized Jewish community today for “failure to join with others of the greater society” in condemning the Vietnam war and its recent expansion by the United States into Cambodia. Rabbi Balfour Brickner, director of interfaith activities of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in New York, said the failure of organized Jewry to participate in the anti-war movement “jeopardizes the credentials of the Jewish community with its own youth who reject a parochial approach to the issues of war and peace in the world.” Rabbi Brickner was interviewed today by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency following his arrest in Washington, D.C. yesterday, along with 74 other clergymen and laymen who were holding an anti-war prayer service across the street from the White House. Rabbi Brickner and the others were charged with disorderly conduct and failure to move on. They were released on bail.
The Reform rabbi recited the benediction that opened the service. He did not attend as a representative of the UAHC but as a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Clergymen and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam. Rabbi Brickner said the Vietnam war and its escalation was a “life or death” issue for America and possibly the world. “It should not be considered an issue with which everybody but Jews concern themselves,” he told the JTA, adding that “Jews have a tendency to view the world situation in a myopic way, through the prism of the Israeli glass.” Rabbi Brickner said he rejected an analogy between support for American policies in Vietnam and Cambodia and support for Israel. He said “the failure of representatives of the Jewish community to associate themselves with those protesting the horror of escalation give truth to the lie that the two situations are analogous.” Rabbi Brickner warned that this could lead Americans to say that Jews are concerned only about Israel and will give credence to the anti-Semitic cannard that Jews hold dual loyalties. He did not speak for UAHC.
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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.
