INFORMATION - The Association of Jewish Refugees

Page 4 AJR INFORMATION March, 1965
NEWS FROM ABROAD
AMERICAN JEWRY
President's Aide
Mr. Myer Feldman, special counsel to President
Kennedy and later to President Johnson,
and also personal adviser to both Presidents
on Jewish Affairs, has resigned, together with
a number of other White House aides who
served with the Kennedy administration.
President Johnson accepted Mr. Feldman's
resignation regretfully and reluctantly. His
new special adviser is also a Jew, Mr. Lee
White.
Protest to Soviet Union
Thousands of people attended a rally in
New York protesting against the situation of
the Jews in the Soviet Union. A message of
support was read from Mr. Hubert Humphrey,
the American Vice-President.
Mr. Robert Kennedy, newly elected Senator
for New York, was among the speakers at the
rally, where a bronze plaque with the inscription,
" Hear the cry of the oppressed—the
Jewish community of the Soviet Union ", was
dedicated at the Zichron Ephraim Synagogue.
The plaque has been fixed on the synagogue
wall facing the building of the Soviet Mission
to the United Nations. Mr. Kennedy called
for renewed efforts by Catholics and Protestants
as well as American Jews in the campaign,
saying that the Soviet Union paid
attention to protests.
The plaque was called " a living monument
to awaken the moral conscience of the world "
to the pUght of Soviet Jewry by Rabbi Arthur
Schneier, minister of the Zichron Ephraim
Congregation. He said it was the " destiny "
of his congregation because of its location
" to remind the world of this issue". The
rally adopted an appeal of conscience urging
the Soviet Government " in the name of
humanity " to " end all discrimination against
its Jewish community" and to restore the
religious and cultural rights of the Jews in
the U,S,S.R. More than 100 American theologians,
writers, educators and political and
judicial leaders, both Jews and non-Jews,
signed the appeal, which appeared as a fullpage
advertisement in " The New York
Times ".
Ort's Plans
A budget of almost $10J million (about
£3,587,000), the highest in history, was
approved at the 43rd annual conference of the
American Ort Federation held in New York.
Training is planned for 41,000 pupils in 600
technical schools in 22 countries. The number
of pupils at Ort schools in Israel will be
doublet! to 14,000, About 10 per cent of the
funds will be provided by the American Joint
Distribution Committee and the rest is
expected from American and foreign contributions.—(J,C.)
You/ HeuM /•