THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE MEMORANDUM
TO : Chapter and Unit Chairmen July 2195T
. ^ (Members of Board of Delegates Copies To (Members of Chapter Executive Committees
PROM: John Slawson
URGENT INFORMA T ION
Pope Pius XII, in a private audience granted June 28th to your AJC delegation led by Irving M. Engel, issued a most important statement condemning racial and religious persecution. The Pontiff urged governments to offer asylum to such refugees. The significance of this plea — coming from the supreme spiritual leader of the world's 484,000,000 Catholics -- is apparent*
The full text of his statement, printed July 1st in the Vatican paper, L'Osservatore Romano, and carried in today's New York Times, is attachedc
May I urge you to help gain for this statement the widest possible attention in your community by:
- Contacting your local newspaper editor to gain editorial support;
- Contacting your radio and TV news commentators for similar support;
- Approaching Catholic clerical and lay leaders for press coverage in diocesan papers and statements from the pulpit and from Catholic rostrums;
- Contacting leaders of community organizations concerned with: immigration, race relations and community relations*
Your local area office and the national office will be anxious to hear whatever results you may have been able to obtain.
/TfOTE: If your Chapter Chairman is away, it would be most helpful if the Vice-Chairman or another officer would take the initiative/^
In the near future, a full report on our mission to Israel,, North Africa, Italy and Prance will be sent to you.
To save time, lists have
not been checked for duplicates,
so you may receive a second copy.
THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE
^ Pioneer American organization combating bigotry, protecting the civil and religious rights of Jews here and abroad, and advancing the cause of human rights everywhere.
^ Chapters in 44 principal cities; members in' more than 550 American communities.
4 This is the American Jewish Committee:
^ bounded in 1906.
386 FOURTH AVENUE NEW YORK 16, N. Y. MURRAY HILL 5-0181
Washington Office; 1625 Eye Street, N.W. • Wash. 5, D.C_ • District 7-3204
European Headquarters: 30 Rue La Boetie • Paris 8, France
South American Headquarters: Bulnes 1863 • Buenos Aires, Argentina
Officers
IRVING M. ENGEL, Presidenl
JACOB BLAUSTEIN RALPH E. SAMUEL
JOSEPH M. PROSKAUER Chairman, Executive Board
Honorary Presidents
MURRAY I. GURFEIN JOHN 5LAWSON
Chairman, Ac/m/nisfrafive Board Executive Vice-President
Harold Steinberg FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Director of Press Relations
TEXT OF STATEMENT BY POPE PIUS XII
New York, N.Y. * , „ . The following is the full text of a statement by Pope Pius XII, delivered at the Vatican in a private audience to a delegation of American Jewish Committee leaders. The statement was published in the Vatican newspaper L1Osservatore Romano, July 1, 1957.
"The American Jewish Committee, which you honorable gentlemen represent, has just rounded out fifty years of service in behalf of the right and status of those of your race who, with other minority groups, have ~been subjected to the violation of fundamental rights inherent in the human person,
"Forced to forsake the land of their birth arid seek on far-off unfamiliar shores a refuge where they might begin anew a 'family life, how many have then had to experience the almost desperate situation added to their miseries of not being welcome where they had hoped for hospitality,
"Your desire to visit us this morning is a testimony to your confidence in the interest we have in the sad plight of the peoples just described.
"Again and again, as did our predecessor of happy memory /Tope Pius Xl]7 before us, we have strongly urged that the fundamental principles of Justice and charity and the long-recognized practice of offering asylum to those not guilty of crime be the norm of government conduct today,
"It is a consolation to our paternal heart to know that our appeal has been generously heeded in many countries; and we like to cherish the hope that so long as that evil blight endures, states will not be lacking in their obligation to succor those who have been
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<«-" forced to emigrate.
rn,-e—— MORE
"We have been happy to welcome you gentlemen and our heart goes out In a fervent prayer to God that in His bounteous goodness He have pity on those who are suffering injustice and enlighten those who are perpetrating evil,’'
The Pontiff delivered his plea to resettle refugees in an address -to the following American Jewish Committee leaders,
Friday* June 28th:
Irving M. Engel, President of the American Jewish Committee, member of Governor Harriman's Committee on Public Employees Security Procedures and former member of the U.S. Committee on Government Contract Compliance;
Herbert B. Ehrmann of Boston, Vice-President of the Committee, member of its Administrative Board, former member of the Massachusetts Judiciary Council and Massachusetts Civil Service Commission,;
Martin Gang of Los Angeles, member of the Administrative Board of the American Jewish Committee, former Director of the Jewish Community Council of Los Angeles;
Frederick F. Greenman, Committee Vice-President and member of its Administrative Board, Trustee of the State University of New York and Chairman of its Committees on New Institutions and on the Community Colleges;
James Marshall, Chairman, AJC’s Committee on International Organizations, member, Board of Trustees, Institute of International Education, former President New York City Board of Education;
Alan M. Stroock, Committee Vice-President and Chairman of its Foreign Affairs Committee, member of the Board of Legal Examiners;
John Slawson, Executive Vice-President American Jewish Committee and member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO.
The fifty-year-old American Jewish Committee is the oldest organization in this country combating bigotry, protecting civil and religious rights of Jews and advancing the cause of human rights everywhere.
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No. 63 A-29 NP-20 J-29
THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE
^ Pioneer American organization combating bigotry, protecting the civil and religious rights of Jews here and abroad, and advancing the cause of human rights everywhere.
^ Chapters in 44 principal cities; members in more than 550 American communities.
4 This is the American Jewish Committee:
^ Founded in 1906.
386 FOURTH AVENUE NEW YORK 16, N. Y. MURRAY HILL 5-0181
Washington Office: 1625 Eye Street, N.W. • Wash. 5, D.C. • District 7-3204
European Headquarters: 30 Rue La Boetie • Paris 8, France
South American Head ;vcrters: Bulnes 1863 • Buenos Aires, Argentina
Officers
IRVING M. ENGEL, President
JACOB BLAUSTEIN RALPH E. SAMUEL
JOSEPH M. PROSKAUER Chairman, Executive Board
Honorary Presidents
MURRAY I. GURFEIN JOHN SLAWSON
Chairman, Administrative Board Executive Vice-President
Harold Steinberg Background of the Statement by Pope Plus XII
Director of Press Relations
to the
American Jewish Committee Delegation
Anti-Semitism in the Communist orbit and the aggressive antiJewish policies of the Nasser reglmb are responsible for the present plight of tens of thousands of Jewish refugees in Europe and the Middle East-, The following are the main areas of oppression and flight:
1« Poland Die-hard Stalinist forces are provoking and exploiting anti-Semitism as a political weapon. Consequently, the 50,000 Jews remaining in Poland as of October 1956 have been leaving the country at the rate of 2,500 per month.,
2* Hungary The Soviet puppet regime is seeking to solidify its position by ascribing the recent revolution against Communist tyranny and the ensuing Communist massacres to "sinister machinations of the Jews." Of the llj.0,000 Jews in Hungary in November 1956, 20,000 fled to the free world. The migration is continuing at the rate of 1,0001,500 per month.
3» Egypt The Nasser dictatorship has pursued a four-pronged anti-Jewish policy consisting of expulsion, economic strangulation, rey_°catipn, of__cijtizenshipi rights,-^and ames Island imprisonment, '■More than half of Egypt's 1+5,000 Jews have been forced out of the country
since November 1956. Departures continue at the rate of 1,000 per month.
The delegation of American Jewish Committee leaders was granted a private audience with Pope Pius XII during a 15,000-mile survey and consultative mission to Europe,North Africa and the Middle East.
The American Jewish Committee, which recently marked its fiftieth
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anniversary,
_ is the bigotry, protecting advancing human rights here
oldest organization in this country combating the civil and religious rights of Jews, and ar4 abroad, . .
https://ajcarchives.org/Portal/Default/en-US/RecordView/Index/1498
