Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson tonight appealed to all Americans for support “to erase from our society the blot of racial and religious discrimination.” He spoke at a banquet in his honor given by the Maryland chapter of the American Jewish Congress at which he was presented with the 1962 Stephen S. Wise Medallion Award of the organization. He said government could not do the job alone.
“When we stand up against bigotry, we are not being charitable to ‘other’ groups,” he said. “We are protecting our own liberties. We must have confidence that we can make ours a society in which men and women of all races, religions and backgrounds can live under conditions of mutual respect and true equality of opportunity.”
Some 500 persons attended the dinner at which the presentation was made by Dr. Joachim Prinz, AJCongress president. The award contains the inscription: “For distinguished service to the cause of democracy and inspiring leadership as Vice President of the United States and Chairman of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities.”
A medallion award for Jewish community service was presented at the dinner to Harry Greenstein, executive director of the Associated Jewish Charities of Baltimore and former adviser on Jewish affairs to Gen. Eisenhower when he was commanding general of United States occupation forces in Germany at the end of World War II. The award was presented by Louis E. Shecter of Baltimore, national co-chairman of the organization’s commission on international affairs.
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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.
