N.g.r.a.c. Agencies Announce Joint Program on Fighting Bias

A joint program on combating anti-Semitism and protecting civil rights in the United States was announced here today six national Jewish organizations and 28 Jewish Community councils cooperating together through the National Community Relations Advisory Council. The announcement emphasizes that agreement on details for carrying out this program–including division of responsibilities–was reached between all the groups involved.

Participating in the work of formulating the program were: the American Jewish Congress, the Jewish Labor Committee, the Jewish War Veterans, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and representatives of the twenty-eight Jewish community relations councils affiliated with the NCRAC. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations and the United Synagogue of America, both of which assumed full NCRAC membership only in January of this year, concurred in the adoption of the plan which sets up the following six major objectives for primary emphasis:

1. A positive United States immigration policy free from racism and other discriminations; Advancing civil rights; 3 Effective defenses against Communist tactics of infiltration and subversion; 4. Fuller respect for and application of traditional American civil liberties; 5. Protection of religious liberties, maintenance of separation of church and state, and promotion of antireligious understanding; 6. De elopement of needed new local community relations agencies.

Detailed programs for moving toward these objectives are presented in the plan as definite activities to be undertaken in regard to various subjects or problems. These include programs in regard to immigration, employment discrimination, discrimination in educational institutions housing discrimination, civil liberties, communism, defamation, United Nations, legal and legislative matters, inter cultural education, labor, veterans; community consultation, and mass media.

PLAN TO SERVE AS GUIDE TO JEWISH COMMUNITIES

The plan is intended to serve as a guide to all NCRAC agencies and to communities in the development of their own programs for the year. It is presented in the form of recommendations, which, in keeping with the voluntary character of the NGRAC, member agencies are expected to follow but which each autonomous member organizations may accept or reject.

The joint program plan was drawn up in accordance with the resolution of the NCRAC Plenary Session of last September, That resolution stipulated that each member agency of the NCRAC submitter recommendations for program for “a specified forthcoming period” to the standing committees of the NCRAC, that the standing committees draw up recommended joint plans in their respective areas of concern, and that the executive committee “integrate the sum total of the plans so recommended by the standing committees, thereby establishing joint program planning.”

This was part of the controversial1 resolution adopted by the NCRAC Plenary Session as culmination of a long process of study and discussion based on the Maolves report. Adoption of the resolution led to the withdrawal from the GVAG of the American Jewish Committee and the B’nai B’rith, the two organizations which con sequentially did not participate in preparing the joint program.