6 DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and the Legal Chronicle COUNCIL Season's Greetings (Continued from Page One) Curtis Iron Works Ornamental Iron Porch Rails — Stair Rails 14719 Grand River. VE. 5-7639 Season's Greetings to All John A. Pack Corp. Real Estate, Insurance, Building Construction, Property Management 834 DIME BANK BLDG. CAdillac 6990 Detroit, Mich. memorandum setting forth the history of the General Jewish Council in the three years since it was formed on June 13, 1938, by the American Jewish Com- mittee, the American Jewish Congress, the Bnai Brith and the Jewish Labor Committee. The memorandum revealed the con- sistent failure of the Council to make any progress to achieve the purposes for which it was formed. Specifically, the Amer- ican Jewish Congress affirmed: Charges Against Council Season's Greetings and Best Wishes MORRIS TAUB Hern at D.T.R.R. PLaza 7192 SEASON'S GREETINGS Superior Systems & Salesbook Co. Salesbooks, Manifold Books, Interfold Forms, Fanfold Forms, Autographic Regis- ters, Continuous Forms 2539 WOODWARD AVE. CHerry 1860-61 "1. That the Council has not achieved a coordination of the activities of its member agencies, and that its member agencies have not seriously desired such coordination. "2. That the Council has at no time undertaken to formulate plans for cooperative action, and that it has never seriously ad- dressed itself to that task. "3. That the Council has done nothing to organize or to coor- dinate the defense work of the local communal organizations but that, on the contrary, when it had an opportunity to do this it categorically refused to assume any direct responsibility for this work which is support for a na- tional defense of Jewish rights. PASSOVER GREETINGS AND BEST WISHES TO ALL BORIN BROS., Inc. 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That the Council, by its failure to become a policy-mak- ing body, and by failing to guide the local communities in their defense work, has added con- fusion to the work of defense in many of the communities. "5. That the Council, unwill- ing to assume control over the defense situation has been the cause for the development of a highly stimulated competition in the work of defense on the part of its own member agencies on a scale never before witnessed in the United States." Program Nullified Further the Congress charged that the action of the American Jewish Committee and the Bnai Brith on March 19, 1941, in reaching an agreement between themselves without the knowl- edge or consent to the General Jewish Council, for joint fund- raisinfi and coordination of ac- tivities and excluding from such an agreement the American Jew- ish Congress and the Jewish Labor Committee, was the cul- minating event in a whole series, resulting in the nullification of the purposes of the General Jew- ish Council. The memorandum of the American Jewish Council was presented by Louis Lipsky, chair- man of its governing council. The announcement of the with- drawal of the delegation of the American Jewish Congress was made by Dr. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress. The withdrawal of the Congress delegation followed the defeat by a vote of 13 to 7 of a motion submitted by Prof. Jerome Mich- ael, asking the General Jewish Council as a whole to recognize that it had ceased to exist except in name and, therefore, officially to dissolve itself. Two members of the Bnai Brith delegation voted with the American Jewish Congress delegation of five in support of this motion. The resolution was defeated despite an agreement by spokesmen of the four groups that the Gen- eral Jewish Council had been inactive. In the resolution submitted by Prof. Michael it was pointed out that the continued existence of the General Jewish Council in its present status of inactivity may be an "obstacle in the way of serious and sincere efforts to coordinate activities to defend and protect the Jewish commun- ity at home and abroad". The Council's Record Except for the first few months after its formation in 1938, the General Jewish Council has un- dertaken no activities and has been preoccupied with discussions of formulas for joint fund rais- ing in which the four agencies would join ; such formula being regarded by all the partners in the General Jewish Council as a prerequisite to coordination of activities. No such formula has been found, the American Jew- ish Congress stated, despite pro- posals and debates which began in September of 1939 and con- cluded in November of 1940. The chief obstacle to agreement was the refusal of the American Jew- ish Committee, which was less concerned with the wishes of the Jewish community of the United States than with the sat- isfaction of the prejudices of some 500 large contributors who were opposed to a joint fund raising campaign of the four agencies. The record of the General Jewish Council from September 1939 to March 1941, states the American Jewish Congress, re- veals: 1. That every proposal for effective coordination of activi- ties and joint fund raising was rejected. 2. That the member agencies were involved in a debate on how substitutes might be found for the General Jewish Council through the creation of a dic- tatorship of ten individuals for whom the powers of the Council were to be turned over a period of three years. 3. During the entire period since the outbreak of the war, when Jewish life "suffered a deterioration not paralleled in its history", the General Jewish Council has "never discussed any of the Jewish questions arising out of the war; took no decisions; issued no statement; was alive neither to the Jewish tragedy in Europe nor to the mounting Jew- ish problems in the Western Hemisphere." 4. The only record of "action" by the General Jewish Council during this period was (a) to censure the American Jewish Congress for calling a meeting at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 13, 1939, to protest against Nazi brutalities in Poland and to veto a non-sectarian meeting arranged by the Congress Nov. 13, 1940, to protest the Vichy decrees against the Jews and (c) on Dec. 23, 1940, to enjoin the American Jewish Congress from organizing a Jewish Sec- tion in support of the British War Relief Society. At no time, according to the American Jew- ish Congress, was the American Jewish Committee serious in its attitude toward the General Jew- ish Council. It recalled that soon after the General Jewish Council was formed, the American Jew- ish Committee embarked on a campaign to increase the budget from 1400,000 to a million and a half in expansion of its pro- gram. At no time was the Gen- eral Jewish Council consulted or informed in advance of this un- dertaking. At the same time the American Jewish Committee was the only agency which refused to ratify an agreement initialed by its president as well as the presi- dent of the other agencies, and subsequently formally approved by the executive boards of 3 agencies, as recently as Novem- ber 18, 1940, which would have given the General Jewish Council the right to coordinate the ac- tivities in the field of defense and to conduct joint fund-raising for all four agencies. Many efforts, it was pointed out, were made by the American Jewish Congress to secure recog- nition by the Council of neces- sity of assuming the large respon- sibilities which were developing and with regard to which the Jews of America were looking to it for action. It recalled that a simple fourfold program sub- mitted by it on Oct. 1, 1939, was defeated on January the 18th, 1940 after months of debate, first because the American Jew- ish Committee was opposed to a four-way joint fund-raising cam- paign and second, because the Jewish Labor Committee refused to permit the enlargement of the Council if it meant yielding any portion of its 25 per cent repre- sentation therein. Congress Proposals The proposal of the American Jewish Congress, as submitted by it on Oct. 1, 1939, had the fol- lowing provisions: 1. The constituent agencies of the General Jewish Council were called upon to act in all their defense activities as agencies of the General Jewish Council and under the direction and super- vision. 2. The consolidation of funds and fund-raising activities was to be undertaken. 3. Local councils were to be established throughout the coun- try and affiliated with and placed under the direction of the Gen- eral Jewish Council. 4. Membership in the General Jewish Council was to be en- larged to include representatives of the three rabbinical organiza- tions, two members of women's orffanizations, and one represen- tative of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds. April 11, 1941 prized autonomy and their inde- pendence of action." Concluding, the momorandum asserts that "the record estab- lishes the fact that by acts of commission and ornisison, more specifically, on the part of the Committee and the Bnai Brith, the purposes of the Pittsburgh agreement have been nullified and the General Jewish Council has been liquidated. A Joyous Pesach to All ! P RIM BEAUTY SHOPPE 2615 CALVERT AVE. it TO. 8-9022 Season's Greetings to All MICHIGAN PAPER BOX COMPANY Set Up and Folding Boxes Dies and Die Cutting 426 CASS AVENUE RAndolph 9117 Passover Greetings to All CASSIDY'S Prescription Laboratory City Wide Delivery Service No Extra Charge 8246 WOODWARD AVE. TRINITY 2-2226 • Season's Greetings DOCTORS AND NURSES REGISTRY 2320 EAST GRAND BLVD. MADISON 4942 GLADYS EDWA RDS, Registrar Passover Greetings to All F. L. MAYHEW Wholesale Beef, Veal and Lamb 4079 DEMING AVE, LAFAYETTE 1178 Action Immobilized "This painful story," says the memorandum," reached a sur- prising climax in the action an- nounced by the presidents of the Bnai Brith and the American Jewish Committee on March 19, 1941. The life of the Council has been held together by a slender thread. It was the hope of many of us that the grief and tragedy of Jewish life would eventually break through the rigid forms of Jewish organizational develop- ment and overcome prejudices and misunderstandings. It was our hope that the General Jew- ish Council some day would wak- en and undertake a functional life. In our judgment the action of the Bnai Brith and the Amer- ican Jewish Committee has broken that thread of hope. It has effectively closed the door leading to union and coopera- tion which was opened at Pitts- burgh in June, 1938." "The General Jewish Council is an organization that could do more service for the Jewish cause," the Congress asserted, "but its action is immobilized and will forever be immobilized by the refusal of those respons- ible for its existence to sacrifice even to a minimum degree their Season's Greetings INDUSTRIAL CASTINGS CO. C. A. BRADY W. L. MAYBERRY 8955 THADDEUS AVE. • Season's Greetings Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters BENNIE SMITH 1308 BROADWAY CADILLAC 5695