Student Activist Umbrella Group Sets Plans for Six Regional Meets. Conclave on Women’s Rights

An official of the North American Jewish Students Network, which claims to represent more than 300 student activist groups, said today the umbrella group will sponsor six regional conferences this year and was planning also to organize a national conference on the problems of Jewish women.

Martin Salowitz, secretary general of the umbrella agency, said the decisions were made at a meeting of the Network steering committee convened to implement resolutions adopted at the second annual convention of Network June 8-12 at Indian Orchard, Pa.

Salowitz said the regional conclaves were being organized to provide “programmatic and educational assistance” to Jewish students who might otherwise not have access to such help “in developing their Jewish identity and knowledge.” Be also reported that the Steering Committee was investigating possibilities for influencing Jewish Federations and community councils “to adopt a more positive attitude toward Jewish education and Jewish poverty, among other issues.”

The official also reported that Network had hired a field worker who will travel to various campuses to aid Jewish student groups and newspapers and help them maintain contact with each other. He said plans were being made to create a “Jewish Association for Life Studies,” which will seek to exchange materials and publish social research relevant to the needs of the Jewish community.

Salowitz discounted the walkout of some “dissidents” from the Indian Orchard convention. They included members of the Jewish Defense League, Betar and other militant factions, who contended that Network did “almost nothing” for Soviet and Arab Jewry, Jewish education, the Jewish poor, Israel and aliya. Salowitz told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that members of the dissident groups had emphasized they were walking out of the convention and not out of the organization.