Dear Editor

...The AJC came out against capital punishment in 1972...

...During recent years we have infiltrated into Rightist organizations to explore them, etc...

...The AJC at that time had no position, pro or con, on capital punishment as such or on the Rosenbergs' death sentence...

...That sounds like defensive patriotism to me...

...His column, "MacNeil/Lehrer: Twice as Long, Half as Good" (NL, October 17), was a perfect putdown of the two PBS idols...

...They add that Fineberg's "shocking insensiiivity to the humanitarian arguments in favor of clemency-coupled with an eagerness to brand anyone who questioned the death sentences as a Communist dupe or worse-can hardly have made a favorable impression on the liberal readership he wanted to impress...

...They quote at length from an interoffice memo prepared by an AJC staff member for Executive Director John B. Slaw-son on July 30, 1950...

...Since both parts of the statement are false, I hope you will permit us to correct them...

...On page 353 the authors conclude that the American Jewish Committee "became an open advocate of the death penalty" in a "defensive attempt to prove the patriotism of America's Jewish community...

...Consequently, Radosh and Milton are wrong in concluding that the AJC supported the Rosenberg execution as a matter of formal public policy...

...While this is very revealing material, ii does not prove that the AJC openly advocated the death penalty...

...New York City Geraldine Rader...

...Fineberg, an AJC staff member who authored The Rosenberg Case: Fact and Fiction in 1953- Radosh and Milton correctly portray the book as "a slavish endorsement of every aspect of the government's handling of the case...

...We miss yet another bet in the use of our investigative staff...

...After rereading that section of the book, I believe that Radosh and Milton are essentially correct, although they have left an apparently misleading impression...

...I thank Mr...

...MacNeil/Lehrer Once again your readers owe a debt of gratitude to Marvin Kitman...

...Dear Editor The Rosenbergs In his article titled "The Rosenbergs Revisited" (NL, October 17), David M. Oshinsky claims that ' The American Jewish Committee called for the death sentence in a pathetic attempt to show that Jews could be tough on Jews...

...To counter that propaganda, the American Jewish Committee insisted on what authors Radosh and Milton, against their own expectation, discovered: that the conviction was neither a miscarriage of justice nor anti-Semitic...

...Why can't we do this with Communist organizations, also using our knowledge to scare off Jews...

...So, too, do the writings of Rabbi S.E...

...New York City Howard I. Friedman President, A merican Jewish Comiitee David M. Oshinksy replies: Mr...

...But Radosh and Milton provide evidence that the AJC was working on the case within weeks of Julius Rosenberg's arrest...

...Friedman is right in assuming that my information came from The Rosenberg File by Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton...

...As his source of information he apparently used the new book, The Rosenberg File: A Search for the Truth by Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton...

...Friedman suggests that the AJC got involved in the Rosenberg affair after the conviction to counter the claim that the trial was an anti-Semitic miscarriage of justice...

...After Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Russians, a campaign was launched to persuade the American public generally and Jews specifically that the conviction was an anti-Semitic miscarriage of justice...

...It states, in part: "The main reason for concern is the belief that the non-Jewish public may generalize from these activities and impute to the Jews as a group treasonable motives and activities...

...Friedman for bringing this to my attention, and I apologize for the error in my article...