Responding to a news report in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s July 21 Daily News Bulletin, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) has called on President Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz to protest the “degrading treatment” by Austrian police of Sister Rose Thering, an American nun who was strip-searched at the Vienna airport after taking part in a demonstration protesting the inauguration of Kurt Waldheim as President of Austria July 8.
Albert Vorspan, senior vice president of the UAHC, said the organization had also called on Waldheim “to repudiate this action, lest your election be regarded as a signal for the resurgence of Nazi-like brutality.” IN his message to the White House and State Department, Vorspan wrote:
“We are shocked at reports that Sister Rose Thering, a distinguished American nun who has dedicated her life to securing human rights for the oppressed, should be dehumanized and humiliated by Austrian authorities who forced her to submit to a strip-search before leaving the country.
“Such harassment is reminiscent of the Nazi past that Sister Rose came to Austria to protest. Singling her out for such degrading treatment raises again the question of whether the election of a former Nazi officer, Kurt Waldheim, to the Presidency of Austria” was a defiance by the Austrian people against the Allies.
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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.
