Associate Justice William O. Douglas, of the United States Supreme Court, was granted here tonight the first annual Bnai Zion Bill of Rights Award, a citation carrying a $1,000 cash prize, established by Bnai Zion, an American fraternal Zionist organization. Today is the 172nd anniversary of the adoption of the United States Bill of Rights.
Accepting the award, voted to him unanimously by the organization’s American Affairs Committee, and presented to him by New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Markowich, former president of Bnai Zion, Justice Douglas warned against bigotry in the United States. “If the bigots command the platform and occupy editorial desks,” he said, “the rule of law degenerates into a regime of whim and caprice.”
Preceding the presentation of the award, a memorial service for the late President Kennedy was conducted by Rabbi William Berkowitz, a national vice-president of Bnai Zion. Dr. Harris J. Levine, chairman of the Bnai Zion Foundation, announced at the dinner that the evaluation and therapeutic center for mentally retarded children, being built by Bnai Zion at Kfar Hashwedi, Jerusalem, will be named for the late President Kennedy.
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.
