Seven major national Jewish organizations called today on President Johnson to countermand Gen. Lewis B. Hershey’s recent recommendation to local draft boards that they reclassify and induct draft registrants who engage in what the general called “illegal activity” to oppose the draft.
In a statement, the organizations strongly defended “the right to express dissent from the decisions of government.” Asserting that they “neither condone nor defend illegal actions,” they said that “service in the armed forces of our country must never be viewed as a substitute for penal service, nor should any administrative official be permitted to impose punishment without judicial process.”
Joining in the statement were: the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress. Jewish Labor Committee, National Council of Jewish Women, Union of American Hebrew Congregations. United Synagogue of America, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
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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.
