American Jews are “deeply concerned with current threats to civil liberties,” Justice David A. Rose, chairman of the National Civil Rights Committee of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, last night told the 102nd annual convention of District Lodge No. 1 of B’nai B’rith.
Justice Rose, who was elected president of the lodge by the 1,200 delegates from New York State, New England and Eastern Canada, told the parley that all other minority groups in this country, racial and ethnic, as well as religious, “are among those most aware of the high cost of what is described as McCarthyism.” He said that the McCarran-Walter Immigration Law’s “public declaration of discrimination and inequality” had lost for the United States “the loyalties and friendship of a large segment of world humanity.”
Benjamin R. Epstein, national director of the ADL, who recently returned from an ADL mission to Germany, said that before Germany could be accepted among the civilized nations, the German people must learn that “the democratic form of government is merely a beginning on the long, hard road toward the establishment of a vigorous and free democracy.”
In a unanimous vote, the delegates condemned the disregard of Constitutional authority “by some officers of the government. ” While the resolution did not name any such officials, it did refer to the “disillusioning spectacle” of the Army-McCarthy hearings. It further warned that “abuse of power can lead only to the lessening of American prestige and international amity, to the impairment of individual liberty, and to the destruction of national confidence and unity.”
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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.
