World Jewish Congress Presents Statement on Human Rights to U.N.

A leather-bound copy of a statement on Jewish commitment to human rights was presented here to United Nations Secretary General U Thant by the World Jewish Congress, marking the 15th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The statement was signed by the president of the World Jewish Congress, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, and leading officers of the organization’s four branches of the international executive in Europe, Israel, North America and South America, on behalf of 65 Jewish communities and representative organizations affiliated with the WJC throughout the world.

Noting that the Jewish commitment to human rights was as old as the Jewish people, the WJC statement recalled that the global Jewish organization, in its first submission to the United Nations, had “reaffirmed its total commitment to the task of cooperating in the human rights activity of the organization, and to do so on the basis of its faith in ‘the common origin, the common right, and the common dignity of all mankind.'”

Since then, the WJC has endeavored to make every contribution possible in the work of those UN organs dealing with human rights questions, the statement stressed. It pledged “cooperation with the men and women of all faiths and peoples who share our vision,” to the task of securing the fulfillment of the promise implicit in the Declaration.

Signatories to the statement, in addition to Dr. Goldmann, were: Dr. Israel Goldstein, honorary vice-president; Samuel Bronfman, vice-president, chairman of the North American executive; Israel M. Sieff, vice-president, chairman of the European executive; Eva Lady Reading, deputy chairman, European executive; Dr. Moises Goldman, chairman, South American executive; Dr. Arieh Tartakower, chairman, Israel executive; and Dr. Maurice L. Perlzweig, permanent representative to the United Nations.