Lza Head Says Jewish Leaders Failed to Consider Special Election Problems

Dr. Judah J. Shapiro, president of the Labor Zionist Alliance, told his organization’s national executive committee yesterday that Jewish organizations and leaders had apparently failed to consider the unique problems of the Jewish voter in this election. “The many coordinating bodies that exist in Jewish organizational life should have had the wisdom months before the nominating conventions to consider the most suitable stance of the American Jewish community during the election period on issues here and beyond,” Dr. Shapiro told the Labor Zionists meeting here.

He noted that the Labor Zionist position is that it is essential for Israel, for American Jewry and for the US itself, that bipartisanship with regard to Israel should be maintained. According to Dr. Shapiro, “there can be no doubt that Jews have a special interest in Israel and in Soviet Jewry, but as electors, they function as American citizens. No leader,” he observed, “had the right to behave as though he could deliver his organization’s membership for either candidate or party. No Jew should have been put in the position of neglecting primary American issues and seem to have been motivated only by concerns for Israel and Soviet Jewry.”

In discussing a possible stance of the American Jewish community, Dr. Shapiro asserted that unemployment, education, medical care and care for senior citizens are issues requiring the concern of Jews for themselves and for fellow Americans. He said that “little is heard by Jewish organizations and leaders” about these issues during the current election campaign.