No official conclusion has been reached on the question of whether Jews shall be considered an “ethnic” group for purposes of identification on visa applications under the terms of the McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act.
This was learned today from State Department sources who made known that a series of inter-departmental meetings held under the auspices of a subcommittee of the Budget Bureau did not decide on what the ethnic groups should be. The Act goes into effect on December 24. To meet its provisions that each alien “shall state his race and ethnic classification” meetings were held by the subcommittee to define these requirements more specifically.
It was learned that the question will be re-opened in an attempt to reach a definite decision by the effective date of the Act. The interpretation by the Visa Division has been that it should be incumbent on each alien to provide his own “race and ethnic classification” for the form. However, this would necessitate a list of classifications which would have to be drawn up and sent to consuls for guidance purposes. The question in the minds of Jewish groups is whether or not the words “Jewish” or “Hebrew” will appear on such a listing.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
