The Massachusetts Board of Rabbis, calling President Nixon’s latest Vietnam offensive unconstitutional and immoral will stage a nonviolent demonstration Wednesday at the John F. Kennedy Federal Building. Scoring Nixon’s mining of Haiphong harbor and air strikes against North Vietnam, the board said it “condemns the escalation,” which it called a “unilateral act of aggression” and “virtually a declaration of war.” Nixon’s “blockade,” the board charged, constitutes a “usurpation of power” and “irresponsible and bellicose brinkmanship.” The board representing all three branches of Judaism, is largely Conservative and Reform.
Meanwhile, in New York Nixon won strong support today for what two Orthodox Jewish organizations termed his efforts to end the Vietnam war. The National Council of Young Israel in a telegram stated: “We fully support your position in Vietnam. Your stand is in the interest of all free people walking the face of this earth.” In another telegram, the Rabbinical Alliance of America said its members “pray that you may succeed in this determination to bring about a just peace ending aggression against nations and peoples.”
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.
