Vention of American Jewish Congress Discusses Immigration and Defense Problems

Problems dealing with immigration of displaced persons to the United States and with the combating of racial and religious bias in his country were discussed today at the biennial convention of the American Jewish congress, now in its third day at the Hotel New Yorker. The convention also heard a message from Dr. Stephen S. Wise, president of the organization, denouncing the U.S. reversal of its Palestine policy.

The center of discussion was the Wiley-Reverbomb Bill now pending before the ?enate which limits the total number of displaced persons to be admitted to the United States to 50,000 a year for the next two years. The bill and its restrictive features were criticized by speakers “as a discriminatory measure” and “a discredit to the noble humanitarian and moral traditions of America.”

Pledging a continued fight toward the goal of “full equality and freedom for all Americans,” Shad Polier, a vice-president of the American Jewish Congress, told the delegates he believes that such equality can be achieved, “We realize that many forces, habits, prejudices and interests stand between us and our goal,” he said. But we are not alone. With us are all other peoples sometimes termed the minority groups. With us, too, are those groups we call progressive. With us, in a word, ?re the people who believe in America.”

Dr. Wise, in his message to the convention, termed the American change of policy on Palestine as “one of the great moral tragedies of history.” He accused the American Government of pursuing “a most uncertain and vacillating course in blindly following the guidance of the British Government” and of being prepared to sacrifice the United Nations. “The American Jewish Congress,” he asserted, “is resolved to give to the Jewish state all which unequivocally loyal American Jews can give to the Judea that is to be, thereby not only meeting our obligation to our fellow-Jews, whose political homelessness must forever end, but likewise proving our worth as sons and daughters of the American tradition.”

Rabbi Morton Berman of Chicago, speaking on “American Jewry and the Jewish State,” said: “The Administration’s reversal of its policy toward a Jewish Common-wealth is tantamount not only to a betrayal of the Jewish people, but of the United Nations,” Nathan Edelstein, of Philadelphia, called for a “counter-offensive against all abridgements of freedom that would make a mockery of the sacred heritage of the Bill of Rights.”

Discussing “Jews in the Diaspora,” Dr. Joachim Prinz of Newark declared that the Jewish people throughout the world are one and that the fate of the Jewish people is one. That means a clear identification of American Jewry with world Jewry.”