Mapam and Her Ut to Boycott W.j.c. Symposium on ‘germans and Jews’

Delegates representing Mapam and Herut announced at the fifth plenary assembly of the World Jewish Congress here today that they would boycott the symposium on “Germans and Jews” scheduled for next Thursday. One of the speakers at that symposium is slated to be Eugen Gerstenmaier, president of the West German Parliament.

The two parties announced the boycott of the symposium after the WJC delegates rejected a proposal by Mordechai Ben-Tov, Israel’s Minister of Housing, a Mapam leader, to amend the agenda in view of the opposition by the two factions to the participation by German representatives. The WJC plenary, which rejected Mr. Ben-Tov’s proposal by a two-thirds majority, also voted down a motion that the symposium deal with anti-Semitism instead of German-Jewish relations.

Asserting that a boycott of the symposium at this stage would be both unwise and unacceptable, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, WJC president, told the session that relations with Germans were not a new phenomenon. The Government of Israel had such relations as did the Jewish people, Dr. Goldmann declared, adding that he himself went to Germany several times a year on Jewish business. He said he did not do this for pleasure, but as a duty. He expressed the belief that the symposium would have beneficial effects and produce new ideas and new attitudes.

Among those addressing today’s session of the WJC plenary were Aryeh L. Pincus, chairman of the Jewish Agency executive; Dr. Joachim Prinz, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Dr. William Wexler, president of B’nai B’rith; Solomon Teff, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews; and Gad Ben-Meir, director of the World Sephardi Federation.

BRONFMAN OUTLINES EFFECTIVE PROGRAM FOR JEWISH CONTINUITY

A program of action to counter the possibility of ‘drop-outs’ eroding Jewish continuity was outlined by Samuel Bronfman, vice-president of the World Jewish Congress, at today’s session of the AJC Assembly.

Mr. Bronfman, who presided over the opening of the general discussion of major Jewish matters, said that while the world seemed finally to have outlawed extreme tendencies that might “generate another Hitler, ” there was”the sorry possibility that an atmosphere of economic security, of great freedom in every sphere of human activity may lead to a subtle and disastrous erosion of our people.” To counter the challenge, Mr. Bronfman proposed the following program:

1. “Devise and provide a thorough, modern Jewish teaching for Jewish children, stressing the heroics and the successes, pointing up the lessons of grim and dangerous times. But the emphasis must be on modern teaching and in the relevance of a teaching in the democracies of the 20th Century. If this requires a pedagogical revolution, let us be courageous enough to initiate it.

2. “We must have a solid foundation for a continuing change, a continuing and ever growing bond between the future generations of Israel and Jews in many other lands. In the same way, the World Jewish Congress must safeguard the bonds between different communities themselves.

3. “We must develop our organization and welcome the affiliation of small communities in remote areas of the world. We are in a trust position for many of the 64 countries affiliated. We must encourage association with other major Jewish bodies dedicated to preserving the Jewish heritage.

4. “We must act with dedication and resolve, with courage and thoughtfulness wherever the well-being of Jews is threatened, wherever the Jewish religion and culture suffers setbacks or discrimination.”

Mr. Bronfman noted in the course of his remarks that the “Jews in the USSR and her satellites pose a very special kind of problem. It is an important agenda item for Jews everywhere.” And he added that there was “some reason to believe that the World Jewish Congress action of sober protest, of studied analysis and of useful demarches and of attracting world opinion has performed very tangible results. There seems more room for optimism today than at any time for over a quarter of a century.”