A resolution calling for the convening of a conference of all national fraternal organizations in America to consider ways and means of combatting alien registration bills and to cooperate with the American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress to prevent the passage of such legislation in Congress was adopted by acclamation yesterday at the 27th biennial convention of the Progressive Order of the West. The same resolution protested against the Michigan alien registration law as well as all efforts to enact similar bills in other states.
Following an appeal by Max Shulman, Chicago Zionist leader, to support the American Palestine Campaign, the convention not only endorsed the drive but appropriated $1.000 from the funds of the Order as an outright contribution and unanimously adopted a resolution calling upon all members to support the $800,000 emergency appeal issued by the Jewish Agency.
The incoming executive board was instructed to cooperate with all agencies in the dissemination of the Hebrew language and particularly in assisting in working for the teaching of Hebrew as an elective subject in the high schools. Cooperation with both the American Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee in their efforts opposing discrimination against Jews in employment and the admission of Jews to colleges and universities was also voted.
Another resolution urged members of the Order to call upon their respective congressmen to vote against any bill for the change of the calendar that would affect or interfere with the religious rights of Jews and others. A new form of membership to be known as juvenile membership, consisting of boys and girls between the ages of ten and fifteen who would be eligible for insurance certificates to be issued to them in accordance with rules and regulations to be prepared by a competent actuary, was created.
A plea that the appropriation of the People’s Tool Campaign be increased from $200 to $500 created a heated debate. It was also decided that the investment of the reserve fund of the Order should be made in municipal bonds instead of in utility bonds. The retiring grand master, Joseph Schiller, was voted the sum of $4,000. A special appropriation of $3,000 to be used as a relief fund for unfortunate members was created.
The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the Ort, the Los Angeles Consumptive Sanitarium, the Denver Sanitarium and other national Jewish institutions were endorsed. Among the messages read to the convention were those from Bernard G. Richards, executive director of the American Jewish Congress, and Dr. A. M. Blumberg of the Ex-Patients’ Home of Denver.
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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.
