Senator Jacob Javits took the Senate floor today to warn the American people not to inject the religious issue unto the presidential campaign. The New York republican stressed that “all four candidates are absolutely devoid of any ‘isms’ in connection with religion” and that there was not and should not be any religious issue in this campaign, whether relating to anti-Semitism or anti-Catholicism.
The Senator said the immediate reason for his speaking up on this issue was an editorial, which he inserted into the Congressional Record, and which was published in the B’nai B’rith Messenger of Los Angeles, California. The editorial pointed out that various people had addressed questions to the paper whether Vice-President Nixon was an anti-Semite. The Senator concurred with the position taken by the editorial which strongly refuted such “vicious rumors.”
Stressing that “There is not the slightest shred of truth” in these allegations the Senator recalled that “last year, while in Warsaw, the Vice President made a pilgrimage to the memorial set up for the Warsaw Ghetto martyrs and there paid tribute to their bravery and love of freedom.” Senator Javits also stated that Vice President Nixon is a friend of Israel and recalled his recent unequivocal statement made to Label A. Katz, president of the B’nai B’rith.
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