Ten major Jewish organizations joined today in a statement condemning the McCarran Omnibus Immigration Bill which Rep. Francis E. Walter is introducing in the House of Representatives tomorrow. The groups at the same time proclaimed support of the Humphrey-Lehman Immigration Bill.
The ten bodies warned that the McCarran-Walter measure would establish a harsh policy of restriction and exclusion, would erect unreasonable barriers against immigration and naturalization, would introduce racial and religious discrimination and would “abandon our country’s finest traditions by dropping an iron curtain around our shores.”
The statement hailed the “genuine Americanization and humanization” of the immigration laws called for by the Humphrey-Lehman Bill which it said would provide for pooling of unused quotas, eliminate racial discrimination, and correct many iniquities. The statement condemned “piece-meal emergency legislation” to deal with the problem of refugees and surplus populations and said that only by making the immigration law “flexible and humane” as the Humphrey-Lehman Bill would do, could this problem be met.
Signatories to the statement were the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish War Veterans, and Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which comprise the National Community Relations Advisory Council, and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. National Council of Jewish Women, Synagogue Council of America United Service for New Americans.
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.
