Newspaper Page Text
The Southern
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry / ■e^ 1 ° a0 5
VOL. XXXI
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 1956
NO. 25
Jews In South Reported Strongly
Affected by Segregation Issues
ATLANTIC CITY. June 24,
(JTA) — The predicament in
which the Jews in the South find
themselves as a result of the de
segregation controversy was wide
ly discussed by Jewish leaders
from many communities assembl
ed here at the four-day confer
ence of the National Communi
ty Relations Advisory Council,
which concluded at the Ritz-
Carlton Hotel today.
The Jewish leaders, represent
ing the American Jewish Con
gress, Jewish Labor Committee,
all national Jewish religious or
ganizations, Jewish War Veterans
and many Jewish community
councils, were told that the Jews
in the South find themselves in
the middle of the fight between
the ‘‘White Citizens Councils”
and the Negroes with regard to
implementation of the Supreme
Court decision against segrega
tion. Dr. Arnold Rose, Professor
of Sociology at the University of
Minnesota and an authority on
minority and civil rights prob
lems, told the conference:
“Jews are somewhat suspected
in the south of being relatively
liberal-minded in regard to civil
rights, which they are on the
average, although many individ
ual Jews are vicious proponents
and prgcticers of discrimination.
In order to avert suspicion, and
even worse things like boycott,
some Southern Jewish merchants
are joining the White Citizen’s
Councils, although their relation
ship is nominal. Nevertheless,
race prejudice has a slippery
quailty, and in some Southern
communities the Citizens’ Coun
cil are attacking Jews as well
as Negroes.
“In the national Jewish or
ganizations, most of the influence
of Southern members is direct
ed toward asking for ‘understand
ing’ of the South and toward
opposing public expressions of
support for the Negro and the
Supreme Court. Some of the na
tional Jewish leaders have con
sequently become ardent pro
ponents of the ‘moderation’ phil
osophy and among the most ac
tive spreaders of tales about in-
cipent violence in the South.
These Jewish leaders are contrib
uting to a most serious disservice
to the Jewis'h group as well as
to the whole nation, in my opin
ion.
“Southern Jewish leaders,”
Prof. Rose declared, “can be ex
pected to ljeep quiet about the
Negro problem so as not to draw
fire on themselves. But national
Jewish leaders have the oppor
tunity that other American lead
ers have of helping to rid the
United States of its major Ac-
chiles’ heel, which has particul
arly threatened the Jews. If they
do not take a long-run and cour-
Charleston Host
July 7 to Carolina,
Georgia JW Veterans
CHARLESTON — Jewish War
Veterans of the Carolinas and
Georgia will convene here July
7 and 8 for a Departmental Con
vention.
The Samuel B. Turteltaub Post,
No. 237, will serve as hosts to
the group, with Herbert Gold
berg, 48 Yeamans Avenue, Byrnes
Downs, Charleston, in charge of
reservations.
The convention starts Saturday
evening, but plans are being made
to take the early arrivals for
the weekend on sightseeiing swim
ming or fishing trips. Sessions
will be held at the Francis Ma
rion Hotel. A banquet, dance
and installation of new officers
is slated for Sunday evening.
ageous view of the current crisis,
they are playing the same role
that collaborationist Jews played
in Europe during the Nazi period.
National Jewish leaders are not
on the personal firing line, and
they should be expected to give
at least moral support to the bat
tle for civil rights,” Prof. Rose
said.
“In this situation,” he continu
ed, “Southern Jews who are also
national leaders have to make
the hard choice, and in general
will have to give up national
leadership, much as Southern
Democratic Party leaders know
that they can never hope to run
for the Presidency. In a minority
strategy, some may have to play
the collaborationists’ role, but
they cannot also play the lead
ers’ role, and their national re
wards must be surreptitious.”
In a resolution on the deseg
regation issues adopted at its
concluding session, the National
Community Relations Advisory
Council conference emphasized
that “respect for law, orderly
process, and the institution of
government is a prerequisite to
the preservation of our democrat
ic system.” The resolution said
that “it is the responsibility of
all agencies of government at
every level to demand and ob
tain compliance with the law.”
The resolution also asked Con
gress to enact legislation to safe
guard rights to freedom of the
franchise, freedom from personal
molestation and the right to re
sort to the courts for enforcement
of Constitutional guarantees. It
also called on the two major po
litical parties to incorporate in
their platforms pledges to sup
port the Supreme Court decision
and to use the full powers of all
At the National Action Confer
ence of the United Jewish Appeal
held in New York June 10, a
check for $400,000 was presented
in behalf of the Atlanta Jewish
Welfare Fund. This was includ
ed in the total of $15,000,000
brought forward at the Confer
ence to bring the mid-year cash
total of the UJA to $40,150,000.
This figure includes $32,250,000
on the regular campaign and $8,-
100,000 on the UJA Special Fund.
The Atlanta check was part of a
$600,000 loan borrowed from the
branches of the Federal govern
ment to secure implementation of
the Gourt’s order.
In another resolution, the
N.C.R.A.C. pledged support of
the “right of all organizations
working for full equality to car
ry out their legitimate functions
free from interference and arbi
trary restraint.” The resolution
specifically noted that the Na
tional Association for the Ad
vancement of Colored People has
been banned in several states and
faces similar action in others for
exercising its constitutional right
to “invoke judicial process in pur
suit of legal objectives.”
The resolution called on the
agencies of government — Fed
eral, state and local — to fulfill
their responsibility to the Con
stitution by exercising their full
authority to prevent interference
with and abridgement of Consti
tutional liberties and urges upon
all citizens, in recognition that
freedom is indivisible, they pro
tect their own freedom by pro
testing any denial of those free
doms to their fellow Americans.
The conference also called for
the enactment of state fair educa
tional practice laws prohibiting
discrimination by higher educa
tional institutions on grounds of
race, color or religion. It urged
“denial of accreditation to any
college, university or professional
school which discriminates in the
admission or treatment of stu
dents on the basis of race, relig
ion, color or national origin,”
The NCRAC conference, at
which plans for coordinating ac
tivities to combat anti-Semitism
in this country were mapped, al
so adopted a resolution strongly
States Government “which has
acquiesced in and, for all prac-
four. local banks. The balance
of $200,000 due on the 1954 Re
funding Loan was paid and $400,-
000 in new money was made
available to meet the present
emergency.
This, it was pointed out by
Ben J. Massell, president of the
Atlanta Welfare Fund, will help
make possible the resettlement in
Israel of tens of thousands of
“anxiety-gripped Jews from
strife-torn North Africa, and help
support urgent welfare, rehabili-
tical purposes, condoned open
and flagrant acts of discrimina
tion by the Arab states against
American citizens on. the basis
of their religious beliefs.” The
resolution said this is “in utter
violation of the most fundamental
American resolutions.” It called
upon the U. S. Government to:
1. Notify all nations of the
world that our government will
not tolerate discrimination against
American citizens because of
their religion; 2. Instruct all
agencies of the government to de
sist from screening qualified
American citizens for military,
diplomatic or other service in a
foreign country solely because of
objections by that country to
American citizens on religious
grounds; 3. Provide expressly in
all treaties and executive agree-
criticizing the action of the United
tation and agricultural programs
in Israel, Europe and Moslem
countries.”
Samuel Rothberg, Atlanta, is
shown at extreme right present
ing his community’s $400,000 to
Samuel H. Daroff, UJA National
Cash Chairman. Looking on, left
to right, Michael A. Stavitsky
and Samuel Rothberg, Periora,
UJA Cash Co-Chairmen, and
Col. Chaim Herzog, commander of
the Jerusalem Military District of
Israel’s Defense Forces.
ments with foreign countries that
American citizens shall not be
denied rights to travel, employ
ment, trade or any other rights
under such treaty or agreements
because of the religion of indi
vidual American citizens.
The resolution also called on
the President’s Committee on
Government Contracts and the
President’s Committee on Em
ployment Policy “to insure that
there shall be no yielding to the
religious prejudice of the Arab
countries in the hiring or place
ment of American personnel."
Another resolution urged “in
creased vigilance on the part of
our government to the end that
Arab consular and embassy of
ficials will not be permitted to
violate their diplomatic status by
aiding and abetting” anti-Jewish
practices and that such Arab of
ficial representatives desist from
engaging in activities which are
“beyond the legitimate scope of
their diplomatic functions.”
The resolution scored the Am
erican Friends of the Middle
East and the American Council
for Judaism for accepting and
using in their propaganda some
of the “most extreme and dang
erous falsehoods and distortions
put forth by the Arab propagan
da apparatus.”
In a resolution on the Jewish
situation in the Soviet Union, the
conference referred to the Khru-
schev repudiation of Stalin and
noted that there has been “no
Soviet repudiation of the terror
against Jews, the suppression of
Jewish culture and Jewish insti
tutions” or of the “cynical Soviet
machinations through arms deals
and other collaboration with the
Arabs to destroy the delicately
balanced peace of the Middle
East.” >
It also pledged to continue ex
posure and denunciation of every
attempt by “Communists and
Communist sympathizers who in
filtrate and subvert legitimate or
ganizations and movements work
ing for the promotion of civil
rights, civil liberties and other
extensions of democratic free
dom.”
The NCRAC conference ex
pressed “regret” that “certain
national Jewish community re
lations agencies are not partici
pating in the cooperative process.
We again invite these agencies
to rejoin,” the resolution said.
The conference re-elected the
following officers: Bernard H.
Trager of Bridgeport, Conn.,
chairman; three vice-chairmen:
Isaac Pacht of Los Angeles, Da
vid L. Ullman of Philadelphia,
Lewis H. Weinstein of Boston;
treasurer Louis Feinmark of New
Haven, and Secretary Julian A.
Kaiser of Indianapolis.
Rothberg Presents Atlanta’s $400,000 to UJA