Religious extremists, estimated by police to number 280, picketed the White House today, asking President Eisenhower’s intercession against alleged “religious persecution” by the Israel Government. The pickets were ignored by government officials. A spokesman for the group sought to enter the White House but was refused admission by Secret Service agents because no appointment had been arranged.
(The Synagogue Council of America, representing the major branches of organized religious Jewry in America, issued a statement “deploring” the demonstration in Washington and characterizing it “irresponsible behavior.”)
The group especially supported the position taken by the Neturei Karta of Jerusalem against mixed bathing in an open-air swimming pool now under construction. (Haaretz, leading Israeli newspaper, reported this week that the builder of the swimming pool had agreed to erect a cement partition in the pool to separate men from women during bathing.)
The pickets, who arrived from New York in buses and other vehicles, carried signs attacking the Government of Israel and accusing the Israeli police of brutality against religious demonstrators.
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