Major Jewish organizations have called upon the Republican and Democratic parties to take effective steps to prevent the injection of religious and racial bigotry into the impending political campaign.
The American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith, Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish War Veterans, and Union of American Hebrew Congregations and 27 local Jewish community councils, which together comprise the National Community Relations Advisory Council, jointly sent identical letters to the chairmen of the Republican and Democratic National Committees.
These letters, signed by Irving Kane, N.C.R.A.C. chairman, urged the major parties to “scrupulously avoid the use of appeals to class, racial, or religious prejudice” and to repudiate the support of fringe groups who “are not above using such methods.” The political parties were requested to publicly declare their abhorrence of the use of bigotry in election campaigning and to instruct their local affiliates accordingly.
Reports that racial and religious bigotry have already been injected into some of the primary contests had given rise to anxiety, the Jewish organizations told the political party chairmen. “Such recourse to bigotry could produce tragically harmful effects should they be used in the impending campaign, which takes place at a time when the greatest possible unity is required to meet the challenge of Communist tyranny,” their letter declared.
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.
