Atlanta Daily World

Jewish Congress Asks Support Of Dynamite Bill

MIAMI, Fla. (INS)—The American Jewish Congress urged Saturday that widespread support be given a House of Representatives bill making it a federal crime to possess or transport dynamite or other explosives in violation of any state law.

Rabbi Jacob V. Rosenberg, chairman of the South Florida Council of the Congress, issued the proposal from the organization's Southeast regional office in Miami.

EVE OF MEET

The move came on the eve of a meeting in Jacksonville of officials from 19 southern cities who will pool information about the recent rash of racial bombings in the region. Last Monday, a Negro school and Jewish synagogue in Jacksonville were bombed.

The Congress' statement declared:

"The longer the perpetrators of these bombings attacks go undiscovered and unpunished, the more outbreaks of violence may be expected."

PROMPT INVESTIGATIONS

"We are grateful for the prompt investigations launched by state and city police officers in Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville and other cities in which bombings have taken place or been attempted."

The statement noted that this week's bombing in Jacksonville and an unsuccessful attempt the same day to dynamite a Jewish Temple in Birmingham, Ala., marked the fifth and sixth such incidents in the past six months.

Rabbi Rosenberg recalled that from June to December, 1957, Miami suffered 13 different dynamitings in front of Jewish community centers and synagogues, a Roman Catholic Church, Miami high school and the Dade County courthouse.

NO ARREST

He pointed out that no arrests were made for those attacks and urged that the pending legislation be passed. The bill was introduced April 1 by Rep. J. Carlton Loser of Tennessee and is now before the House Judiciary Committee.