American Jewish Congress Convention Discusses Civil Rights

President Truman was urged today at the biennial convention of the American Jewish Congress to summon a special session of the United State Senate for the purpose of adopting an effective rule limiting debate, or face the imminent collapse of the entire Federal Civil Rights Program.

“Failure to amend the Senate cloture rule has blocked all civil rights legislation in last decade,” Will Maslow, director of the American Jewish Congress’ Commission on Law and Social Action, told the 1,500 delegates attending the convention. He emphasized that four years have elapsed since the report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights and its endorsement by President Truman, but not a single Federal legislative item in this program has been adopted.

Shad Polar, vice-president of the American Jewish Congress, sharply criticized both Houses of the United States Congress for its complete failure during this session to take “any action to eliminate those patterns of discrimination and segregation which deny to many Americans that equality of opportunity and rights which is the essence of our democratic system.”

GOLDMANN SAYS ISRAEL AND WORLD JEWRY ARE INTERDEPENDENT

Dr. Nahum Goldmann, co-chairman of. the Jewish Agency and acting president of

With this source of strength and inspiration gone, he said, Israel can become a country of spiritual importance “only if the full partnership with world Jewry is cemented. ” Just as Israel would be condemned to mediocrity without the co-operation of world Jewry, so world Jewry would face a “spiritual and moral degeneration within a few generations” if it is not united culturally with Israel and is, therefore, not influenced by the values which Israel will create, he emphasized.

In his opening address at the convention last night, Rabbi Miller said that or- gainsaid Jewish life in America had justification only if it was motivated not merely by a desire to assure the security of Jews, but also by the ideal of preserving and enriching historic Jewish religious, ethical and cultural values and Jewish concepts of man and his relationships.

Dr. Israel Goldstein, addressing the session, pointed out that world Jewry, in making its restitution demands upon Germany, was not condoning the German guilt for the horrors of the Nazi regime “any more than it would be a condemnation of a bandit’s crime to seek to recover from him all or part of the property he has stolen.”

On the problem of relationships between American and Israeli Jews, Dr. Gold- stein emphasized that the tie between them was neither political near nationalistic but a cultural and spiritual one “which has and will continue to enrich both communities. ” He assailed those American Jews who attempt to erect artificial barriers between American Jews and Israel.