AJ Congress Parley
Draws World Leaders
Friday, M ay
1958—THE
O
U THANT, Burmese Ambas-
sador to the United States
(left), and Rev. MARTIN
LUTHER KING, leader of the
Montgomery, Ala., bus boy-
cott, will be two of the prin-
cipal speakers at the national
biennial convention of the
American Jewish Congress,
May 14 to 18, in Miami Beach,
Fla. Other personalities who
will address the sessions in-
clude Michigan's Gov. G. Men-
nen Williams, Israel Ambassa-
dor Abba Eban, Walter Reu-
ther, president, UAW-CIO; Dr.
Nahum Goldmann, president,
World Jewish Congress; Judge
Justine Wise Polier, AJ Con-
gress executive committee
chairman; and Dr. Israel Gold-
stein, AJ Congress president.
Jewish Status,
Language Issues
Raised in Israel
JERUSALEM—A number of
cabinet members, including Pre-
mier Ben-Gurion, were in revolt
Wednesday against the new
identity cards issued by the
Ministry of Interior for use by
all citizens.
Ben-Gurion's principled refu-
sal was based on the fact that
the card carried instructions in
both Hebrew and Arabic, while
he insisted that it should carry
Hebrew only as the nation's
official language.
Other oppositions came from
religious ministers who objected
to the fact that card holder
could be identified as Jewish
without fulfilling any of the re-
quirements which rabbinic law
lay down for being a Jew. The
Interior Ministry defended itself
from these charges with the
argument that it is administra-
tively impossible to lay down
and implement a set of require-
ments which would define a
Jew and that, as a consequence,
the mere statement of an Is-
raeli citizen that he is a Jew is
sufficient evidence of it.
Meanwhile the Ministry of
Justice has begun study of
the country's official languages
which legally are H e b r e w,
Arabic and English. All three
appear on postage stamps and
currency. While English is fall-
ing into disuse, with French re-
placing it, official stationery
continues • to be published in
Arabic as well as Hebrew,
Immediate FBI Investigation Asked in Bombirig of Jacksonville Center
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The
local Jewish Community COuncil
met Tuesday to map plans for
immediate and long-range com-
munity action to prevent further
attacks such as Monday's bomb-
ing of the Jacksonville Jewish
Center which caused less than
$3,000 in damages and injured
no one.
The C o m unty Council,
whose members agreed to act
jointly on all matters pertaining
to the bombing, has scheduled
a meeting with the local Minis-
terial Alliance to obtain an offi-
cial expression of views of the
Christian clergy. It is under-
stood that most ministers in
Jacksonville were planning to
devote their next Sunday's ser-
mons to the attack and its sig-
nificance as an assault on the
civil rights of all citizens.
Meeting with newspapers and
radio officials and with munici-
pal officers and police authori-
ties have already begun.
Among the long-range plans
tentatively considered at the
Community Council meeting was
the establishment in this city
of a human relations council
embracing the widest possible
representation of political, civic
and spiritual leaders.
In the Jacksonville outrage, a
bomb blasted the stillness of the
Workmen's Circle Awards Slated
for Shevitz, Rev. Sperry, Turner
Three distinguished Michigan
citizens will be the recipients
of the Workmen's Circle Award,
presented annually to people
who show "a background of
general excellence of character
and personal integrity and ren-
der service beyond the require-
ments of gainful position."
This year's recipients are
Sidney M. Shevitz, Rev. William
B. Sperry and
Edward M. Tur-
ner. The pres-
entation will
be made at an
award meeting
at 8:30 p.m.,
Sunday, at the
Davison
Branch, Jew-
ish Commun-
ity Center. A
Turner
buffet supper will follow the
presentation.
Toastmaster for the evening
is Michigan Supreme Court Jus-
tice George Edwards. Presenta-
tions will be made by Lt. Gov.
Philip A. Hart, Mrs. Golda Kro-
lik of the Detroit Commission
on Community Relations and
Donald M. Thurber, a Univer-
sity of Michigan regent.
Shevitz, a past president of
Detroit's Jewish Community
Council and the Labor Zionist
Organization, is given consider-
able credit for the firm footing
established by the Fair Employ-
ment Practices. Commission, of
which he was first chairman.
Turner was chosen for the
award because "his efforts have
contributed measureably to the
Half of Soviet Rulers
Reportedly Wed to Jews
LONDON (JTA) — Soviet
President Klementi Vorshilov
and half the members of the
Soviet Communist Party Presi-
dium have Jewish wives, So-
viet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
said, according to reports re-
ceived here from Moscow.
Khrushchev made this known
in the course of the remarks
he was delivering at a Polish
Embassy reception.
Noting Israeli Ambassador
Joseph Avidar among the
guests, the Soviet Premier re-
marked that Dowager Queen
Elizabeth of Belgium, on a re-
cent visit to Moscow, had raised
the question of a special So-
viet attitude toward Jews.
He reported that President
Vorshilov had told the Queen
that the Russians did have a
special attitude toward Jews
and that he had a Jewish wife.
Relating this exchange, Khrush-
chev added: "Half the members
of the Presidium have Jewish
wives."
Rev. Sperry
Shevitz
improvement of police respect
for citizen dignity, the expan-
sion of fair practices in employ-
ment and in public housing, and
the extension of community fa-
cilities to all."
Rev. Sperry, rector, Christ
Episcopal Church, was selected
for the award because "his ef-
forts have been founded upon
the belief that the institution
of the church must work effec-
tively with other' institutions of
a free society."
The active minister has been
identified with citizen or gov-
ernmental activity on problems
of the aging and the emotion-
ally disturbed, and on behalf of
world understanding, the hun-
gry, as well as the causes of
civil rights and civil liberties.
MITCHELL FELDMAN will
moderate a panel discussion on
mechanical parking at the an-
nual convention of the National
Parking Association in New
York, May 19-21.
night at 12:30 Monday morning
and blew down the doors and
left a crater in the entrance to
the Jewish Center. A few min-
utes later, another cache of ex-
plosives damaged an all-Negro
elementary school.
Though homes in the vicinity
of both buildings were damaged
and many windows were smash-
ed by shock waves, no one was
injured. Anonymous telephone
callers later identified them-
selves as members of a so-called
"Confederate Union" and ac-
cepted responsibility for the
deeds. One caller declared:
"Every segregationist must be
set free. Jews must be driven
out of Florida except Miami
Beach. Jews outside Miami
Beach will die."
The local press has given con-
siderable prominence to news
of the blasts and non-Jewish
forces in the community are
expected to rally shortly to dis-
own the "Confederate Under-
ground." Jewish sources in this
city said the police authorities
had been "very cooperative" and
were bending every effort to
clearing up the affair.
Recently, in one night, bombs
blasted a Jewish center in Nash-
ville and a synagague in Miami.
An anonymous caller after the
Nashville night bombing also
identified himself as a member
of the "Confederate Under-
ground."
One of the calls in Jackson-
ville was to the Florida Times
Union where a reporter asked
whether the bombers were con-
nected with the KuKlux Klan.
He was told: "We're in touch
with every organization fighting
for segregation — all over the
state and in the South." Among
the people called by the "under-
ground" were three rabbis, in-
cluding Rabbi Sanders Tofield,
spiritual leader of the center
which was bombed.
Federal Investigation Asked
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The
Department of Justice is await-
ing reports from the FBI and
the U. S. Attorney's office to
determine if any violation ,of
Federal law occurred in the
Jacksonville bombing of the
Jewish center and a Negro
school.
U. S. Attorney General Wil-
liam P. Rogers was urged to
take immediate and effective
action by launching a full-scale
FBI investigation into the "state
of lawlessness and bombings
which have erupted in the
South." The American Jewish
Committee, in a wire to the
Attorney General, stressed that
the "series of bombings" clearly
indicates a concerted course of
criminal actior on an interstate
scale and "points to the exis-
tence of a conspiracy which
warrants an immediate investi-
gation by the FBI."
Issue Discussed by Rabbis
KIAMESHA LAKE, N. Y.
(JTA) — The position to be
taken by the Conservative rab-
binate in this country—particu-
larly by rabbis and congrega-
tions in the South—on the issue
of desegregation of Negroes was
outlined at the 58th annual na-
tional convention of the Rabbini-
cal Assembly of America.
In a report to the convention,
Rabbi Harry Halpern, chairman
of the Assembly's commission
on social action, said that Con-
servative Judaism is not con-
cerned with the appropriate
pace at which the desegregation
process should be realized, but
Jews "must not remain silent
in the face of denial of equality
to a segment of the American
people and have a moral duty
to speak out against the injus-
tice meted out" to Negroes.
Urge FBI Action
to End Bombings
WASHINGTON, (JTA)—Sen.
Spessard L. Holland, - Florida
Democrat, has urged FBI di-
rector J. Edgar Hoover to lend
every possible assistance to
Florida authorities in bringing
to justice those responsible for
the bombing of a synagogue in
Jacksonville.
Republican Sen. Jacob K.
Javits, of New York, urged
broadening of FBI powers to
combat conspiracies and bomb-
ings in the South. He said that
recent attacks on synagogues
and Negro schools would be
exploited by Soviet propaganda
to discredit the U.S.
Cong. Emanuel Celler, chair-
man of the House Judiciary
Committee, also urged an im-
mediate FBI investigation,
charging that a "confederate
underground" is actively con-
spiring to blow up synagogues
and schools in a number of
Southern states.
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