U.s.jewis Call the Revised Immigration Law Disappointing

Major Jewish organizations today said that they shared fully President Eisenhower’s disappointment with the immigration legislation signed into law by the President last week. The law “falls disappointingly short of achieving long and urgently needed changes, “they said.

They called the changes effected by the law “commendable though minor. ” They deplored particularly the failure of the legislation to replace the national origins quota system with an “nondiscriminatory and equitable basis for selecting immigrants.”

These views were expressed in a statement released by the National Community Relations Advisory Council and joined in by the American Jewish Congress, Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A., Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, United Synagogue of America and National Council of Jewish Women.

At the same time, the American Council for Judaism Issued a statement saying that “the enactment of at least a beginning to more liberalized legislation by Congress recently underscores the fact that the Western Hemisphere continues to be among the major havens for Jewish refugees since World War II.” The AJC made public the results of a survey showing that countries other than Israel have admitted 300, 000 Jewish refugees since 1946.

The study establishes that about 1,500,000 Jews were compelled to take to the international highways of migration after World War II, although approximately 500,000 of them managed to return to their former homes in liberated areas of Europe.Some 792,000.mainly Asian. African and Eastern European, immigrated to Israel, Over 300,000 were admitted by countries other than Israel — mostly by the United States, Canada. Australia, and South American countries. Some were also received by France, Sweden, Norway, Italy and Switzerland.