The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith today made public the texts of resolutions passed during their recent concurrent meetings in Chicago reaffirming their withdrawal from the National Community Relations Advisory Council, coordinating body of Jewish groups engaged in fighting anti-Semitism.
The A.J.C. resolution said: “We reaffirm our withdrawal from the N.C.R.A.C. because as set forth in our Statement of Withdrawal that organization departed from its original concept. It substituted compulsion for voluntary agreement. We reaffirm our determination to continue to make our contribution toward a dignified and secure life for Jews in America and throughout the world. We reaffirm our long established willingness to work together in voluntary cooperation with other organizations dedicated to the never ceasing fight against intolerance, injustice and inhumanity.”
The Anti-Defamation resolution stated: “The A.D.L. believes in the voluntary character of American Jewish life. It believes in the creativity that comes from honest difference of opinion. We believe with equal earnestness in the desirability of collaboration between those persons and organizations who may differ in the continuing hope that major areas of agreement may increase and the troublesome specters of conflict may decline.
“This we believe is attainable only if the integrity of each unit of Jewish life is respected. The concept of majority control by a super-agency over organizational structure of constituents is a contradiction of the whole ideal of freedom and voluntarism. It is unrealistic and does not reflect the true nature of the Jewish community whom we serve, not master.
“WE DID NOT SEEK THE FIGHT,” A.D.L. SAYS
“The action of the N.C.R.A.C. was the inevitable consequence of a battle for power. Those who suggest that the Barr resolution was a concession from the basic aim for control over the destiny of the national agency members know full well that the concession was one of draftsmanship and timing and not in fact. We did not seek to capture and we will not be captured. To accept the Barr resolution would have yielded a principle which has built B’nai B’rith and nurtured the A.D.L.–the search for unity without uniformity and the right of Jews to mobilize in what they consider their own best interests. If other national agencies fell otherwise, it is their privilege to do so; but it is not their function to impose their will on us.
“We did not seek the issue or the fight. If the Jewish community becomes a shambles from a battle of words others will have to accept the onus. We yield to none in our search for consultation and advice; but this must be within the framework of voluntarism.
“We view with deepest regret the impatient sacrifice of years marked by growing understanding and lessening difference attained through a National Community Relations Advisory Council by destroying the advisory council and creating in its stead a new and unnecessary operating agency. We did not leave the agency we adhered to–it left us. This whole act will live to plague American Jewish life as a contemporary tragedy–diverting its energies and resources to an internal warfare. We did not seek this–but we will not idly stand by and accept the castigation of our agency or the questioning of the honor and good faith of those who believe as we do.”
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.
