The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League will not tolerate a “single over-riding authoritarian body in the community relations field professing to speak for all American Jews.” Irving M. Engel, chairman of the executive committee of the A.J.C., told the annual meeting of the Joint Defense Appeal executive committee here this week-end.
He declared that in the community relations field, “no premium should be placed on unity as such” and declared that the A.J.C. and A.D.L. “have always been ready in areas of agreement to work together with other agencies on a basis of mutual respect for and mutual understanding of divergent views.”
Paul H. Sampliner, chairman of the J.D.A. executive committee, warned that the situation confronting the American Jewish community today required maximum support for the work of the two agencies “to establish the kind of relations between Christian and Jew that will make bigotry and the appeals of bigotry a thing of the past.”
Harry E. Schultz of New York told the parley that the Jewish community finds itself in “that vital but dangerous position – the middle ground” and has to defend itself against extremists of both right and left.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
