Rabbi Alexander Schindler, President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, has sharply assailed Sen. Chic Hecht (R. Nev.) for opposing Senate ratification of the Genocide Convention.
Hecht said earlier this month that he asked “top Jewish attorneys, international lawyers” to analyze the treaty and “it is their opinion that the genocide treaty would not be in the best interests of the State of Israel or the United States of America.” (See December 23 Bulletin.)Schindler, in a telegram to Hecht, retorted, “I am prepared if you wish to debate the merits of the issue with you. But before any such discussion, I call on you to cease and desist from any efforts to portray either the American Jewish community, or Jewish members of the legal profession or the State of Israel, as opposed to this vital international treaty, which our country should long ago have ratified.”
Schindler said he could not understand how “one generation after Auschwitz any member of the Jewish community can oppose a treaty outlawing the mass murder of men and women because of their race and religion. Nor do I understand what ‘the best interest of the State of Israel’ has to do with it. In fact Israel was one of the first countries in the world to ratify the genocide treaty, as our country is now called upon to do.”
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