Nuns Hailed for Texts on Jesus' Jewishness; Polls Reveal Trends at Parley
NEW YORK—Pope Paul VI was
presented with two textbooks on
the Jewishness of Jesus written by
two nuns from Monroe, Mich. The
presentation was made at a spe-
cial Vatican audience.
Already in use in Detroit paro-
chial schools, the books are part
of a series for religious instruc-
tion, which has been hailed by
Jewish leaders for rejecting the
principle of collective Jewish guilt
for the crucifixion of Jesus. Other
parochial schools in New York,
Philadelphia and in Canada are
also using the texts in the first
and second grades. Third-grade vol-
umes are now being printed; and
the fourth grade is in the hands of
publishers Allyn and Bacon, Inc.,
of Boston.
The nuns worked with Rabbi
Marc H. Tannenbaum of New York,
director of the American Jewish
Committee's department of inter-
religious affairs.
Scheduled for completion in
1967, the series, "The Lord
Jesus" was praised by Jewish
leaders for its emphasis on the
Jewishness of Jesus through use
of illustrations and Hebraic let-
tering. Children using the texts
become accustomed to the idea
that Jesus worshipped in syna-
gogues, learned the Jewish scrip-
tures and lived according to
Jewish law.
The work of the. two nuns was
cited as an example of new efforts
at understanding by Chrisitan edu-
cators in a report issued by Ralph
Friedman, chairman of the execu-
tive board of the American Jew-
ish Committee.
Addressing the 58th annual meet-
ing of the Committee in New York,
Friedman said at least six major
publishing companies are present-
ly either revising their religious
texts or preparing new materials.
There also are significant changes
in Protestant curriculum materials,
it was reported.
Morris B. Abram, reelected
president of the American Jewish
Committee, told the Catholic
church that it now has "a great op-
portunity to join the Protestant
world in removing an old source
of bitterness and prejudice and a
grave impediment to good human
relations." He referred to the
forthcoming session of the Ecu-
menical Council in September at
which the much-discussed Vatican
declaration repudiating the charge
that Jews crucified Jesus is to be
discussed for final adoption.
Abram spoke at the opening
session of the annual conference
which lasted four days. Other
speakers at the dinner-session in-
cluded Vice President of the
United States Hubert H. Hum-
phrey and Rev. Dr. Martin Luth-
er King, Jr. In his presidential
address, Abram also urged that
Jews should not hold "the Ger-
man people as a whole" guilty
for all time for the acts of the
"criminal Nazi state."
He pointed out that it was in this
spirit that Israel "established
diplomatic relations with Ger-
many." But, he declared that in
this context, the' war crimes trials
must continue, just reparations
must be paid to all victims, not
just those who had the opportunity
to escape from the Iron Curtain
before 1953.
The Committee, at the closing
session, called on the U. S. gov-
ernment to use its influence to
bring the Arab States and Israel
to the peace table, and to continue
"arms and economic aid to Israel.
In addition, the Committee's
resolution urged the government to
make clear, "as a matter of offi-
cial U. S. government policy, our
opposition to the boycott and re-
strictive trade practices presently
being pursued by the Arab League
and our determination to protect
U. S. business concerns in their
efforts to combat Arab pressures."
On Germany, the Committee
urged two points: first, that the
statute of limitations on Nazi war
criminals be extended to 1975,
rather than to the end of 1969, as
has been approved by the German
legislature; second, that the West
German government "grant equal
status" to Nazi victims from East
Europe "under an extended fed-
eral indemnification law."
Discussing the spr eading
propaganda by Arab countries,
Abram cited a copy of a book re-
* *
American Jewish Committee Attacks
Burgeoning Efforts of Birch Society
The American Jewish Committee
warned Tuesday that the John
Birch Society, which has doubled
its membership in the past two
years from 40,000 to 80,000, is seek-
ing to enter the political arena to
promote the extreme right-wing
position in Congressional districts
throughout the country.
During the past year, the society
has been trying to change its pub-
lic image and correct the impres-
sion that it is secretive and con-
spiratorial.
This has motivated a growing
public relations program, which
includes TV and radio appear.
ances by Birch functionaries and
a Sunday supplement as a paid
advertisement appearing in pa-
pers with a circulation of about
six million. Among th e se were
the Detroit Free Press, Milwau-
kee Journal and Louisville Cour-
ier Journal.
(The la-page, paid Sunday sup-
plement appearing in the Free
Press resulted in a flurry of pro-
tests to that paper and to the Jew-
ish News.)
Dr. John Slawson, executive vice
president of the American Jewish
Committee, made public extensive
factual material on what he called
the "amazing growth of the six-
year-old John Birch Society," as
the American Jewish Committee
opened its 58th annual meeting,
at the Americana Hotel, New York.
Annual income of the John
Birch Society, Dr. Slawson said,
has gone from $130,000 in 1959,
when it first got under way, to
over $3,200,000 last year, not in-
cluding funds derived from its
publishing and book-selling enter-
prises.
cently obtained by the Conunit-
tee entitled "For These Reasons
I Hate Israel," by Egyptian
Colonel Amin Sarni Al-Gham-
rawi, which Abram described as
"a 350-page unrelieved vitriolic
and Nazi-like slander of the Jew-
ish people."
The book, which is receiving
widespread distribution through
the Arab world with the endorse-
ment of the Egyptian government,
"delves extensively into the dis-
credited forgery, "The Protocols of
the Elders of Zion," as a basis for
anti-Semitic propaganda.
At the same time, the Arabs
are spreading other conventional
anti-Semitic publications for both
domestic and foreign consumption,
including Hitler's "Mein Kampf,"
which is supplied to Egyptian
army officers. Abram charged that
anti-Semitism is part of the regu-
lar indoctrination given to the
Egyptian armed forces.
"Currently, the most intensive
aspect of the Arab campaign,"
Abram charged, "is being levelled
against Cath6lic leaders in the Ecu-
menical Council, aiming at the pre-
vention of the adoption of the pro-
posed decree which repudiates the
ancient charge of collective Jewish
guilt for the death of Jesus."
Arab campaign tactics include
distribution of anti-Semitic books
and pamphlets at the Council,
pressure on Catholic and Pro-
testant leaders in Arab countries
with grave threats to the future
of their church school and so-
cial welfare institutions, and
widespread propaganda aimed at
Arab Christians.
Abram's reports linked Arab
anti-Semitic activities to some of
the operations and programs of the
neo-Nazi movements in Europe. On
this issue, Zachariah Shuster,
director of the Committee's Euro-
pean office with headquarters in
Paris, made public an extensive
report on the hundreds of neo-Nazi
parties and splinter groups or-
2,anized throughout Europe since
the early 50's.
In his survey of neo-Nazi activi-
ties, Shuster reported that in West
Germany, at the end of 1964, there
were 119 extremist organizations,
while more than 50 had been form-
ed in Austria during the past 10
years,
Though neo-Nazi groups seem to
be shrinking in strength, as the
older generation is dying off, the
strength of these extremist groups
and parties, Shuster stressed, must
be measured against the impact of
their ideologies.
A five-year study by the Harvard
Business School of the recruitment
practices among college graduates
by major American corporations,
concludes that unless management
takes active steps to change its
discriminatory methods of hiring,
the present acute national short-
age of executive talent will persist.
Philip E. Hoffman, chairman of
the board of governors of the
American Jewish Committee, re-
ported the findings at the Corn-
mittee meeting.
The Harvard study, which re-
veals both how prejudice affects
the selection process on college
campuses by company recruiters
and what influences students of
different religious backgrounds to
join certain companies, is the sec-
ond of a series of university-con-
ducted research projects sponsor-
ed by the American Jewish Com-
mittee to invsetigate discrimina-
tion at the management levels of
American business and industry.
The first of the studies made
public, prepared by the Sur-
vey Research Center of the Uni-
versity of Michigans' Institute
for Social Research, reported
last November that non-ability
factors such as social background
and club membership are often
guises under which discrimina-
tion creeps into the process of
promotion to upper management
positions.
He pointed out that the Birch
Society has been expanding in the
face of a barrage of adverse pub-
licity, including denunciations by
high government officials and ex-
poses by newspapers, magazines,
radio and TV.
In fact, he said, the society's
chapters have increased from 50
in 1959, when they were mainly
underground, to more than 500
currently in 50 states and the Dis-
trict of Columbia. The new mem-
bership drive, evidently receiving
top priority in the Birch Society,
Dr. Slawson said, is aimed at or-
ganizing chapters in at least three-
quarters of the 435 Congressional
districts throughout the nation.
Despite founder Robert Welch's
repeated denials that the society
has political ambitions, Dr. Slaw-
son asserted that "the new recruit-
ing drive is aimed at those Con-
gressional districts where Welch
believes the society can influence
the outcome of further elections."
With all of its growth and ac-
tivity, the Birch program still
shapes up, Dr. Slawson said, "as
a crazy quilt of violent colors"
with such favorite ideologies as:
Impeach Earl Warren; Get the
U.S. Out of the UN; Abolish For-
eign Aid; Expose the Civil
Rights Movement As a Fraud;
Repeal the Federal Income Tax;
Save America From the Commu-
nist Conspiracy.
"This hodgepodge of extremist
positions is presented for con-
sumption in a well financed and
efficient operation fired by fanati-
cal zeal," Dr. Slawson said. "The
real aim of the Birch Society seems
to be to undermine confidence in
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
democratic institutions, to para-
10—Friday, May 28, 1965
lyze the democratic process."
The findings of the Harvard
study reveal a close relationship
between such restrictive promotion
practices and campus recruitment.
For example, companies that did
not hire Jewish trainees were
found to downgrade ability quali-
fications, placing a premium on
what the reports refers to as "be-
ing a good Joe." This "together-
ness" environment, the study finds,
results in a homogeneous environ-
ment that excludes Jews.
The report reveals further that
the absence of Jews in manage-
ment ranks accounts for the lack
of interest of Jewish students in
seeking management careers in
these companies.
In another study reported on
at the meeting, it was noted that
barriers between Jews and Chris-
tians in American suburbia are
coming down in work and com-
munity relations.
A report on the five-year study
was presented by Dr. Jhon Slaw-
son, executive vice-president. The
study indicated that almost half
fo the Christians surveyed express-
ed lack of concern over how many
Jews lived in their neighborhood.
Known as the Lakeville study
a fictional name given to the typi-
cal Midwestern community studied
—the survey concluded that _ the
new spirit of intergroup friendship
was casual. In community organi-
zations, such as PTAs and similar
groups, the groups mingled and
worked together congenially for
community goals. The hobby, rec-
reational and social groups were
found domniated by typical cliques
and status interest attitudes, with
little° or no intermingling.
Eighty per cent of Lakeville non-
Jews were found to be willing to
live with Jews. Twnety-three per
cent said they would prefer a
situation in which Jews remained
the minority—not more than 30
per cent. About 25 per cent indi-
cated they would accept a 50-50
proportion and 43 per cent said
they "don't care" how many Jews
lived in the neighborhood.
Red Sea Is Supplying
Drinking Water, Says
Israeli Envoy to West
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—Merde-
cai Shalev, Israel consul general
for the Western States, reported
that drinking water was already
being supplied from desalination
projects on the Red Sea to resi-
dents of Eilat, Israel's southern-
most port.
The Israeli official, who has
been named ambassador to Ghana,
made the disclosure in a farewell
address to the local Jewish Na-
tional. Fund organization.
Dr: Joseph Burg, Israeli social
welfare minister, told the meet-
ing of 600 delegates that Israel
would not allow its enemies "to
divert the waters of the Jordan
River and let them flow into the
sea." He noted that the JNF was
establishing a new network of
outposts and roads in the affected
area.
New Branch
of the
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opening in
SOUTHFIELD
For September Classes
at the
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A bequest to the JNF is a be-
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For information and advice
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18414 WYOMING AVE.
UN 4-2767