Newspaper Page Text
Friday, August 9, 1963
Face Six THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Relationship Between Agency,
JTA Explained to Fulbright
WASHINGTON, (JTA) — The
relationship between the Jewish
Agency and the Jewish Tele
graphic Agency was explored
by Sen. J. W. Fulbright, chair
man of the Senate Foreign Re
lations Committee, during his
questioning of Jewish Agency
representatives, as part of his
Committee’s study of non-diplo-
matic activities of representa
tives of foreign governments.
The transcript of the executive
hearing held May 23, was issued
here this week.
Gottlieb Hammer, who was
executive director of the Jew
ish Agency until 1960, told Sen.
Fulbright how the Jewish Agen
cy had become involved in the
JTA situation. He referred to
the JTA’s financial difficulties
in 1960, and declared:
“The Jewish Agency stepped
Into the picture in order to pre
serve the existence of a news
agency which specialised in the
dissemination of Jewish news of
particular interest to communi
ties in the United States and
throughout the free world, wher
ever Jewish communities ex
isted.
“Our purpose at that time was
to make certain that there would
be uninterrupted operation of
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
or JTA as it is commonly known,
and that at some point as soon
as we could arrange it, there
would be a transfer of this
property, not only transfer of
the share ownership, which is
something that is not of great
value in view of the deficit posi
tion of the JTA, but also the
burden of financing it, to other
people.
“In the middle 1950’s,” Mr.
Hammer continued, “I person
ally undertook negotiations with
representatives of the Council
of Jewish Federations and Wel
fare Funds, leading to their ex
tending support to and partici
pating in a reorganized JTA,
and these negotiations went on
for several years.
“During that period, the Jew
ish Agency for Israel, Inc., pro
vided the budget or provided
the funds necessary to cover the
deficit of JTA to keep it going.
I understand that the proceeds
of transfer to a reorganized
board of the JTA, and the
transfer of stock is taking place,
and has almost reached the final
stages of conclusion.”
Eleazar Lipsky, president of
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
in a letter, this week to Sena
tor Fulbright on behalf of the
JTA Board of Directors, review
ed the relationship that existed
between the Jewish Agency and
the JTA, and emphasized that
the reorganization of the JTA as
an independent entity, operating
in the interests of the Jewish
community and the free world,
is now nearing completion.
‘In 1951,” Mr. Lipsky wrote,
“the JTA was in acnte financial
difficulties which severely con
stricted its operations and, in
fact Jeopardized its continued
existence. To prevent the total
collapse of this news service
which was considered vital to
the well-being of the Jewish
community, the Jewish Agency
was requested by the JTA to
intervene and provide the funds
to permit JTA to continue func
tioning on what was expected to
be a provisional basis. It became
nominally the owner of the Jew
ish Telegraphic Agency through
ownership of the voting shares
by transfer from the late Jacob
Landau, founder of the JTA. For
a long time, the JTA regarded
advances by the Jewish Agency
as interest-free loans.
"The Jewish Agency did not
interfere or attempt to interfere
in the editorial operation of the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency its
policies, its news content, its
selection and treatment of news,
its reporting or the management
of its business.
“The Jewish Telegraphic
Agency is grateful to the Jewish
Agency for having made it poss
ible to continue its operations
and render important services
to the Jewish community. We
believe that the American Jew
ish community is under a deep
obligation to the Jewish Agen
cy for having preserved this
service for it.
“The Jewish Telegraphic
Agency has served the Jewish
people, the American Jewish
community and the free world
generally for more than 46
years,” Mr. Lipsky continued.
“Its sole purpose and its sole
function has been to report as
accurately and objectively as
human frailties permit those de
velopments anywhere in the
world of special concern or in
terest to the Jewish people, to
bring to light information which
their wellbeing required and to
provide the information on
which Jewish leadership could
take informed action.
“The importance and effective
ness of the JTA was acknowl
edged over the years by the
Jewish leadership here and
abroad and its Journalistic pro
ficiency by the long list of
newspapers which relied on its
services. The Jewish Telegraphic
Agency has always freely and
publicly acknowledged this re
lationship with the Jewish Agen
cy. The American Jewish federa
tions and welfare funds were
aware of it and were kept ap
prised of the continuous efforts
to establish a new basis for
JTA. The Jewish Agency almost
immediately took the initiative
in discussing with the leader
ship of the American Jewish
community reorganisation of
JTA to ensure its independent
UNITED NATIONS (WUP) —
The Security Council is engaged
in a heated debate on the issue
of apartheid—the racist doctrine
in the Republic of South Africa
—a fact which in itself represents
a new and revolutionary kind of
thinking in our fast-moving pol
itical world.
Not too long ago a prediction
that the violation of human
rights should be dealt with by
the UN organ primarily respon
sible for peace and security in
the world would have had to of
fer the longest odds. Today it is
a fact which gives the whole
question of racial discrimination
a new and more dynamic mean
ing.
“What has a violation of this
human right to do with the basic
causes of war?”
The Government in Johannes
burg, which has reduced over
eleven million Africans to the
status of pariahs in their own
land, poses this question, barri
caded behind the claim of domes
tic Jurisdiction. But this concept,
in the UN, is about as “old hat”
as Hitler’s death camps were sim
ply a matter of domestic juris
diction.
When President Kennedy lately
asked: “What is peace but human
rights?” he just about summed up
the UN ideology today.
It so happens that, in the case
of the apartheid, the relationship
operation and financial stability.
“As a result of its endeavors,
an agreement was reached in
I96'0 for the future organization
of JTA. The reorganization of
JTA as an independent entity
operating in the interests of the
Jewish community and the free
world, is now nearing comple
tion. Only some technical details
remain to be effected. A dis-
By David Horowitz
UNITED NATIONS (WUP) —
Some 300 East European Orth
odox Rabbis, now residing in the
United States and Canada as ref
ugees of Nazi persecution, have
issued a desperate appeal for the
right to indemnification under
under the German Indemnifica
tion Law of 1952.
Living under great hardships
and deprived of employment due
to their advanced age, the 300
Rabbis—representing a remnant
of the 10,000 of World War 11
in 1939—finding themselves in a
desperate plight, have appealed
to the Federal German Republic
for their equal right to restitu
tion and pension under the Hague
Agreement of 1952 between the
German Government and the
Jewish Conference of Material
Claims Against Germany, Inc.
The 300 Rabbis, who have
is literally obvious as black and
white. The insult of complete seg
regation to some eleven million
Africans in South Africa is a
blow to every American who
shares their color and refuses to
share their fate—or, permit them
to endure it.
Thus the obvious fact is that
here the gross violation of a
human right becomes the root
cause of a hot-blooded war, based
on the deepest human emotion
and charged with all the fury
and the anger which is the prod
uct of an organized insult.
In other instances, less specta
cular and a less dramatic rela
tionship, states will continue to
invoke the question of domestic
jurisdiction, but with increasing
resistance to this narrow view of
the rights of nationalism.
A more recent instance of this
growing idea that racism is a
menace to the peace of the world
was the approval by the current
session of t he Economic and
Social Council in Geneva—unan
imously—of the new Declaration
for the final and total elimina
tion of all forms of racial dis
crimination. The Preamble in
cluded as an objective of human
rights the achievement of "inter
national cooperation.” It express
ed the conviction that racism
tends “to jeopardize friendly re
lations among peoples” and “co
operation between nations” as
tinguished Board of Directors,
composed of representatives of
many facets of American Jew
ish life and including distin
guished publicists, is now di
recting the affairs of JTA and
will shortly assume direct own
ership of the news agency as
trustees for the community. The
new Board is completely inde
pendent of the Jewish Agency
or of any other organization and
its revised constitution will as
sure that this will continue to
be the fact.
“The financial responsibility
for the service is being increas
ingly assumed by the Ameri
can Jewish federations and wel-
formed themselves into a Claims
Group known as the Central
Committee of the Refugee Rabbis
in the U. S. and Canada, main
tain that a “grave injustice” has
been committed against them
when they, of the East European
communities, were omitted from
the Hague Agreement, despite the
obvious historic fact that they
were just as much the victims of
Nazi persecution under the Nazi
occupation as were the Rabbis in
Germany to whom the Hague ac
cord limited its compensation.
During an exclusive interview
in the office of the World-Union
Press Bureau here at the UN, four
distinguished spokesmen of the
Central Committee—Rabbi Chaim
Meisels, Chairman, and formerly
the Sarvasher Rebbe of Hungary;
Rabbi Dr. Samuel Joseph Schul-
sohn, Chernovitz, Bukovina; Rab
bi A. M. Israel, former Chief
Rabbi of Hunyad, Romania, and
later of Vienna, and Rabbi Joel
well as endangering “internation
al peace and security.”
In the Geneva Declaration not
only is racism condemned. All
states are enjoined to take spec
ial measures to prevent the de
velopment of racism within their
confines "without delay” and this
includes the devocation of all
laws legalizing such discrimina
tion. Moreover, it calls for the
condemnation of incitements. This
is a great step forward and comes
as a great blow to all racist
bigots.
The Security Council debate
on apartheid has now become a
test-case of racism as the enemy
not only of its victims but to the
peace of the world. What the
Council will do about it is a mat
ter of how far governments will
go in taking action against the
Republic. But regardless of the
kind of resolution the eleven-
member body will adopt, it has
already a consensus that the
principle is one on which the Se
curity Council has jurisdiction.
This is an historic conclusion,
a landmark in the history of
man’s racial inhumanity to man.
The attack against any people
because of their racial origin is
no longer merely an act of prej
udice involving human rights. It
is now a prima facie case of ag
gression, and may well be the
beginning of a chapter in the
evolution of the world family
which will deal the strongest
blow yet devised by man against
one of his most ancient wrongs.
fare funds, more than 135 of
which are now directly partici
pating in its work.
"An outstanding committee
of American editors and publi
cists is now being formed to
study and review the operations
of JTA and to formulate recom
mendations for its future pro
grams. This committee’s recom
mendations will guide the JTA
Board in its efforts to make JTA
as most effective instrument of
the American Jewish communi
ty and a trusted, dependable,
useful source of information for
the world press,” Mr. Lipsky
concluded.
Teitelbaum, Czechoslovakia—told
this writer in the gravest tones
that their exclusion from the
Agreement was unfair and dis
criminatory. They branded the
act of exclusion as being based
on “a double standard, contrary
to the spirit and aims of the In
demnification Law.”
Rabbi Meisels, as spokesman
for the group, stated that his
Central Committee “demands
that this discrimination be eli
minated and abolished and that
the pension rights be extended to
all refugee Rabbis who have suf
fered from Nazi persecution with
out regard to their residence at
the beginning of the Second
World War.”
Rabbi Meisels pointed out that,
in fact, the underlying principle
of their contention was recog
nized when the original agree
ment was modified in 1960 to ex
tend to the Rabbis of Bohemia
and Monrovia on a retroactive
basis.
In the light of this fact, he
stated that his group sees no
legal reason why the remaining
300 Rabbis from the East Euro
pean countries should not be in
cluded, since they base their case
on equality and justice.
The delegation of four — each
member an outstanding scholar
exuding an air of dignity and
Hassidic holiness — disclosed that
the Bonn Government has in fact
accorded the principle of equality-
invoked in their claim when it
recently expressed its willingness
to negotiate with the Group
after the termination of the
Hague Agreement at the end of
this year.
But Rabbi Meisels pointed out
to the writer that the delay
would deprive his Group of the
important provisions of the
Agreement and possibly wipe out
the retroactive aspects of their
claims.
The four Rabbis, who had lost
their families, homes and life
long posts as the victims of the
heinous Nazi crimes, presented a
pitiful picture of the current fi
nancial plight of the 300 refugee
Rabbis.
Victims of Nazi atrocities, they
feel they are now the victims of
German injustice.
These escapees of Hitler’s Iron
Furnace and the Nazi holocaust
have opened their hearts with a
cry for justice and equal con
sideration.
It might be well for Dr. Nahum
Goldmann to take note and act
immediately.
BEHIND UN SCENES—by David Horowitz
Racial Discrimination Reexamined
NEW UN CONCEPT LINKS
RACE ISSUE TO PEACE
Sufferers of Nazi Persecution Disregarded
East European Refugee Rabbis
Petition Bonn for Pension Rights