Much of the difficulties involved in stimulating the raising of funds for civic defense work is due to the “failure to bring the hard realities of the world in which we live to the attention of American Jewry,” Philip M. Klutznick, B’nai B’rith president, told an audience of community leaders here attending the opening meeting of the Joint Defense Appeal drive.
Mr. Klutznick warned that there were signs on the horizon indicating that the need for “a fighting organization” capable of defending Jews against false and malicious charges was “as great today as in any modern time.” He cited several examples in recent weeks to illustrate the situation. Taking up the recent probe at Fort Monmouth, he declared that 41 out of the 45 originally suspended as security risks were Jews, and that accidentally or otherwise, many of them had been falsely accused and have since been reinstated.
The B’nai B’rith president took issue with those who “believe that the only way to stamp out anti-Semitism is to broaden the base of democracy. ” He pointed out, for example, that many Southern Jews were now being subjected to both “economic and social pressures” because of the part that Jewish organizations had played in ending school segregation in the South. Commenting that “it is one thing to talk about it within the comfortable walls of his club and another thing to come face to face with the effects of it in a small town in Mississippi, “he warned that every defense of civil rights required boldness and courage.
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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.
