President Johnson, speaking at the opening session of the 52nd annual meeting of the Anti-Defamation League of B’rai B’rith, called on all Americans last night to “work for the understanding, the tolerance, the spirit of benevolence and brotherly love” required for his concept of the Great Society. He credited the ADL with playing a major role in the development of civil rights in this country.
The President was presented with the ADL American Democratic Legacy Award for 1965, in his second appearance as President before a Jewish organization. Last year, he attended a dinner of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute.
President Johnson also urged Americans to “never forget that unity is the legacy of our American democracy.” He said Americans must work for the kind of relations “that will assure every man fulfillment, dignity and honor, whatever his faith, whatever his origins, however he spells his name, whatever his beliefs, whatever his color, whatever his emoluments. If this be our purpose and if this be our accomplishment, then our society will be great.”
Declaring the ADL has “the gratitude of this nation,” he said that in its half-century “of fighting discrimination, you have never tired, you have never faltered, you have never lost faith in your cause and your cause has given faith to the nation.”
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.
