The State Department today informed the Secretary General of the United Nations that the United States does not favor a movement in the United Nations to revise the calendar. Major Jewish religious groups had opposed calendar reform because it would disrupt the seven-day sabbatical cycle.
Herbert Hoover, Jr., Undersecretary of State, who met recently with a Jewish delegation which urged him to oppose the UN proposal, told the UN Secretary General: “The U.S. Government does not favor any action by the UN to revise the present calendar. This government cannot in any way promote a change of this nature, which would intimately affect every inhabitant of this country, unless such a reform were favored by a substantial majority of the citizens of the United States acting through their representatives in the Congress.”
Mr. Hoover emphasized that “there is no evidence of such support in the U.S. for calendar reform” and that large numbers of U.S. citizens oppose it. “Moreover,” he added, “this government holds that it would be inappropriate for the United Nations, which represents many different religious and social beliefs throughout the world, to sponsor any revision of the existing calendar that would conflict with the principles of important religious faiths.
“This government furthermore recommends that no further study of this subject should be undertaken. Such a study would require the use of manpower and funds which could be more usefully devoted to more vital and urgent tasks, “Mr. Hoover stated. (See page 4 for German opposition to calendar reform.)
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.
