Blue Laws, Classroom Prayers Win in Four Cities
NEWARK, N. J., (JTA)—Federal . Judge Mendon
Morrill denied applications made in United States District
Court_ here for a restraining order to prevent . New .Jer-
sey's Sunday closing law from being enforced against
persons who keep Saturday as their day of religious
rest and observance.
Judge Morrill's ruling was issued in the case of two
Orthodox Jewish merchants, who had challenged the ban
on Sunday sales on the ground that the law violates
constitutional guarantees of religious freedom.
The next step in the case will be a hearing today
by a three-judge federal court here on motions for a
temporary injunction aimed at barring enforcement of
the Sunday sales ban until its constitutionality has been
determined. The case may ultimately be appealed to the
United States Supreme Court.
U. S. Stamp
Honors
Masaryk,
Champion of
Liberty
- *
Mercury's
Anti-Semitism
Commentary
Page 2
PHILADELPHIA, (JTA)—A spe-
cial three-judge Federal court here
has rejected arguments that Penn-
sylvania's Sunday sales ban violated
the First Amendment on freedom
of religion and upheld the law.
The decision clears the way for
district attorneys in the state's 67
counties to enforce a 1959 amend-
ment, which spells out items that may .
not be sold on Sundays and raises
penalties to a maximum $200 fine
or 30 days in jail. The ruling was
only on the amendment and. not on
the 1939 blue law banning Sunday
sales which had also been challenged.
PLAIN-EDGE, L. I., (JTA)---A petition signed by
5,000 residents of this suburban community, calling for
a referendum on making mandatory recitation of the
"Regents" prayer in all classrooms was rejected by the
Plainedge Board of Education. The vote was 5 to 2.
The prayer recommended by the New York State
Board of Regents also is the subject of a suit brought by
a parents group against the Herrick, L. I., Board of
Education. The Nassau County Supreme court sanctioned
use of the prayer.
The board majority said after the vote that at its
next meeting it would propose a moment of silent medita-
tion at the opening of the school day in place of the
prayer, the text of which is: "Almighty God, we acknowl-
edge our dependence on Thee, and we beg Thy blessing
upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country."
HE JEWISH NEWS
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Extension of Refugee Program
Marks Return to 1948 Status
Direct JTA Teletype Wires to The Jewish News
W. German llinister Denies
Killing 5,000 Jews inn. LWOW
.
UNITED NATIONS, N. Y.—The General Assembly's Special. Political
Committee adopted a resolution Tuesday prolonging the life of the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for three years and reactivating the Palestine Concilia-
tion Committee, 71 delegations voting in favor of the entire resolution, none
BONN, (JTA)—Piof. Theodor Oberlander, West German
opposed and only Israel abstaining.
Minister for Expellees and War Victims, was quoted as flatly
In a separate vote on the fourth paragraph of the resolution, which called
denying charges that he was responsible for the extermination
for reactivation of the Arab refugees as provided in the 1948 'UN resolution,
of Polish Jews in Lwow during World War II.
Israel cast the single vote in oppositio n
/, other delegations refrained from
In Israel, Moshe Reiss, a survivor of the Nazi Ghetto in
giving this proposal their approval.
Lwow, told reporters that Oberlander had several hundred
AcceptanCe of the resolution by the General Assembly plenary session is
J e ws killed during the first few dayt of the German occupation
now considered a matter of routine.
and that later, 5,000 Jews were murdered near Lviow under
Oberlander's orders.
Israel announced its position on the resolution prior to the balloting but
withheld its statement justifying its stand until the
voting was completed. Michael S. Comay, head of the
U.S. Ambassador to Jordan Accused of
Israel delegation, then told the committee that his
delegation regarded it as "significant" that a large
Anti-Israel Bias; Congress May Investigate
number
of delegations "have expressed their misgivings
BY MILTON FRIEDMAN
on paragraph four and have abstained on the separate
(Copyright, 1959, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
vote."
WASHINGTON -- The State Department is • scrutinizing the United States Embassy
While the Israeli statement was a general review
in Amman, Jordan, because of complaints ranging from gross incompetence to anti-Jewish bias.
of Israel's position on the refugee question and the
Two Democrats, Senators Gore of Tennessee and McGee of Wyoming, expressed alarm
broader issue of Arab-Israeli relations, Comay reserved
at the state of affairs they found in Jordan.
his fire for the paragraph of the resolution reactivating
The two senators discovered widespread fraud 'in , American-supported projects in
Jordan's Arab refugee camps. They reported that 150,000 ration cards were fraudulently
the Conciliation Comthission. ,
used: They charged that the refugee program operated in Jordan was "immoral, dishonest."
"A renewed reference to the Conciliation Commis-
Secretary of State Herter quickly referred the matter to the United Nations. Although
sion in the year 1959," he declared, "must take account
-United States taxpayers meet most of the bills, the program is actually under UN auspices.
of the evolution of the United Nations policy since
Congress wanted to know why the U:S. lEmbassy in Amman did not keep a_ livelier eye on
1948 when the commission was established—of current
corruption involving American funds.
international thinking on the problem—of the contemp-
Ambassador Sheldon Mills and his staff might have been too busy making anti-Israel
orary realities in the area—and of Israel's own record
remarks to visiting American tourists. That is the possibility suggested by a complaint of
the Rev. Karl Baehr, executive director of the American Christian Palestine Committee.
and undertakings. By any of these tests paragraph
Rev. Baehr visited the Embassy as leader of a study group of American civic, political,
four is devoid of realism. It looks backward instead of
and religious leaders. He was shocked to discover that 'Ambassador Mills and his staff
forward and is more likely to impede constructive
were belligerently anti-Israel."
Ambassador Mills, according to Rev. Baehr, mentioned the Hitler era and declared
.
that "the Jews have committed an equally great crime by driving the. Arabs from -their
homes." It was apparent throughout the interview."that this anti-Israel attitude in our Jordan
EMbasay is not casual or marginal, but rather consistent and central."
The visiting Americans, all non-Jews, found Ambassador Mills' voicing "an anti-Zionist
bias and the nostaglic wish that Palestine had not been colonized by Jews." The Ambassa-
dor was not alone. A member of his staff brightly interjected that Israel had received
"much too much assistance from the United States."
Rev. Baehr complaihed to the State Department. G. Lewis Jones, Assistant Secre-
tary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, replied: `-`Ambassador Mills is a senior and experienced
foreign service officer in whose judgment and ability the Department has full confidence.
In particular. we are confident that he faithfully represent,S 'Mid carries out established
U.S. policy with regard to the Arab-Israeli question."
But officials of. the U.S. International Cooperation Administration indicated less con-
fidence in Ambassador Mills. He recommended a tourist promotion study to aid Jordan.
ICA made the study, expending funds, only to have Jordan denounce the ICA because it
dared recommend two-way tourist crossings between Jordan and Israel.
George Kovach, ICA tourism expert, went to Jordan and prepared 22 comprehensive
recommendations. Viewing the situation with logic and *without prejudice; Kovach concluded
that tourists visiting Jordan should be permitted easier access to and from Israel: Jordan
flew into a rage, denouncing this move to facilitate tourist transit as a device to promote
recognition of Israel. Hatred of Israel is so intense that Jordan refuses to accept Israel's
existence as a legal reality. _
Another of Kovach's proposals was attacked with _equal violence. He had urged con-
struction of a large new. Jordanian airport near the Dead Sea. Jordan screamed that this
was a pro-Israeli trick, alleging that the heat was so intense at the proposed site that
tourists would shun it and land instead at Israel's Lydda Airport. .
ICA sources said their agency was . puzzled by Jordanian wrath. Acting, on the request -
of Ambassador • Mills, ICA had spent time and money trying to help Jordan. Their only
intention was to give Jordan a larger share of the Near East's tourist business.
Despite his evident anti-Israel bias, Ambassador Mills has apparently failed to promote
friendly relations between Jordan and the United States. Congress may look into the mess.
(Continued on Page 3)
Lippmann Sees Continuing
Arab Fight Against Israel
In the first of a series of articles on his trip to Egypt, India
and Iran, Walter. Lippmann, writing Wednesday in the New
York Herald Tribune on the subject of Egypt and Israel, stated
that in his view the solution to the Arab refugee problem will
depend "in the last analysis on the willingness of Egypt and
the other Arab states to let it be solved. The willingness to do
this will be greatly affected • by the progress-President Nasser
makes in the deVeloPment of the Egyptian economy."
Regardless of how Arab politicians may feel about Israel,
Lippmann wrote, "in public they must be irreconcilable." No
Arab statesmen, he declared, can afford to recognize Israel,
and if Nasser tried it he would be assassinated. He ascribes
it to "the convulsion caused in Palestine by the creation of
Israel."
He states that the two "unhappy wars" fought by Israel
have not been forgotten, and he adds that the Arabs. continue
to fear Israeli aggression because they do not think that Israel
can survive in its present small territory. Lippmann's article
declares that ,he asked Egyptians "-why Israel could not support
its growing population by intensive cultivation and by indus-
trialization." The answer was that Israel is not a viable state,
that it is subsidized and that "in the long run the support from
outside will taper off, and the experiment will fail." The Egyp-
tians also said they believe Israel will become compelled to
appease its neighbors by the surrender of some of its territory."