The American Council for Judaism, which was rebuked by the Democrats in Chicago, today presented a statement to Republican Convention here declaring that “an important and significant number of Americans of Jewish faith do not–as Jews–have any special policy to recommend for the conduct of the United States Middle Eastern affairs.”
The memorandum, presented by George L. Levison, vice-president of the American Council for Judaism, says that “the religious faith of American Jews is, in no sense whatsoever, committed to the political sovereignty of the Middle East nation in Israel”. It rejects the “Zionist these is” that all people of Jewish faith, by virtue of being Jews, hold a common Jewish nationality.
“Prevalent theories that the Judaism of American Jews includes special political attitudes toward the foreign State of Israel are a slander of the national integrity of American Jews, “the ACJ memorandum states “To give political status or dignity to something called a ‘Jewish’ vote is to do violence to the deep-seated American tradition which abhors either political privilege or discrimination based upon religious conviction.”
Anticipating that the Republican Convention will make special mention of the Middle East in its foreign policy declaration, the American Council for Judaism expresses the hope that the exhortations of Zionist special-pleaders for Israeli national interests will be “evaluated for exactly what they are and not as reflective of the attitude of Americans of Jewish faith who want no national or political relationship between themselves and the State of Israel that is different from the relationships of their fellow citizens of other faiths.”
WANTS TO “REDUCE ZIONIST CLAIMS;” ADMITS ARAB DISCRIMINATION
Declaring that there is no “Jewish” vote which can be controlled or delivered by any agency or institution of Jews, the memorandum states: “It is therefore a callous and unwarranted defamation of American Jews and a serious disservice to their enjoyment of America’s freedom to represent them as a religious bloc with unified, political predilections, particularly when these political predilections have to do with the national welfare of a foreign country from which most of them certainly never came and to which, just as certainly, most of them have no intention of going.
“We believe most American Jews desire a status of American nationality uncomplicated by any implication that because they are Jews they are special pleaders for, or unusually involved in, the national interests of the State of Israel”, the ACJ continues. “This effort to reduce Zionist claims to size and make it clear that American Jews are, in terms of our country’s foreign policy commitments, not to be segregated out for special patronage to a foreign nationalism because of their faith, has received the gratifying favorable approval of the Secretary of State, the Honorable John Foster Dulles,” the ACJ claims.
At the same time, the ACJ draws the attention of the Republican Convention to the fact that in many Arab nations of the Middle East the United States passport of an American of Jewish faith will not be honored for visa purposes although Americans of other faiths experience no such difficulty. Also that in Saudi Arabia and certain of the North African territories or nations where the United States has military bases, United States personnel of Jewish faith are not permitted to serve in the armed forces of the United States.
“We earnestly look to our own Government to afford the requisite, legal protection safeguarding the integrity of our national status and our faith from the gratuitous bestowal upon us, because of our faith, of an unwelcome and unwarranted identification with the nationality of the citizens of Israel. Similarly we look to our Government to defend our rights, as Americans, to have our American passports honored by the Arab states in the same manner as they honor the United States passports of Americans of other faiths,” the ACJ memorandum states.
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.
