A four-point memorandum recommending practical steps for the achievement of an international bill of rights, justice to the Jews, the outlawing of racial and religious incitement and universal disarmament was submitted today to the United States delegation to the San Francisco conference by the Synagogue. Council of America, which represents the rabbinical and lay leadership of Orthodox, Reform and Conservative congregations throughout the United States.
The memorandum supplements the Synagogue Council’s endorsement of the Dumbarten Oaks proposals which was made public earlier this year. It urges the creation of machinery to prevent war, commissions to safeguard human rights everywhere, full restoration of civil and political rights, abrogation of the 1939 White Paper affecting immigration into Palestine. It regards as “imperative that the United Nations charter include provisions for the outlawing of incitement against religious and racial groups as well as discrimination against them,”
In a section on “Justice to the Jew,” the memorandum said: “The desperate need of the Jewish people, despoiled, disfranchised, and decimated in twelve long years of Nazi barbarism, must challenge the conscience of humanity. The postwar treatment of the Jews is a touchstone of the effectiveness of the new world organization in establishing and maintaining peace and justice. The civil and political rights of Jews of Europe must be restored by the vigorous enforcement of the recommended international bill of rights. In addition, we believe that, whatever the precise form of the ultimate political structure of Palestine may be, the democratic and peace-loving nations of the world are honor-bound to respect the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate for Palestine, a pledge approved by 52 nations of the world and often reiterated by the leaders of the United Nations. It is tragically urgent that immediate steps be taken to abrogate the 1939 White Papger, never sanctioned by the League of Nations, and to open the gates of Palestine to free and unrestricted Jewish immigration and land colonization.”
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