DEFENDERS OR EXPLOITERS OF THE JEWS?
Newby, Edith O.
Defenders Or Exploiters Of The Jews? By EDITH O NEWBY RECENTLY the New York Times carried the report of a great meeting gathered to do battle against anti-Semitism. What rocked me back on my heels...
...Goldberg explained that he had a great pile of them for distribution and could he bring them to our rally scheduled for Glen Rock that evening...
...The ushers were notified to receive Mr...
...Responsible Jewish opinion, says columnist Frederick Woltman, is increasingly concerned with the result of this indiscriminate sweeping of dissenters into the category of "anti-Semites...
...At 8:45 the audience was restless and we had to begin...
...Leiper's leaflet on anti-Semitism...
...Then they rush back to their instruments in a renewed frenzy...
...Smear articles, smear books, smear speeches, traps —isn't it time that crusaders observed that intolerance is rising in direct ratio to their bigoted smears ? Isn't it plain as a pikestaff by now—the relation between the attacks on leaders who were anti-war, whom millions of Americans admire, and the rising tide of bitterness...
...But the night was the foulest for weather I ever saw...
...I recall too, a former Senator impeccably in the forefront of the fight for "freedom" who bawled me out for supporting the appointment of a certain judge...
...I asked why they didn't start and was told they were waiting for a Mr...
...Leiper's leaflet oh anti-Semitism would be welcome in the office...
...My guess is yes...
...In New York there are at least two such bawling sheets, yelling defense of the Jews so belligerently as actually to provoke outbreaks of intolerance...
...I said I did, adding that Dr...
...spreads it where it could be checked...
...No, I said, but I had heard it was a fine piece of work...
...Levy had called and asked permission to distribute Dr...
...Henry Smith Leiper of the Federal Council of Churches...
...The huge auditorium was crowded, the platform filled, and Phil was ready...
...There, quite casually, someone mentioned that a Mr...
...I glanced at the Union Jack draping the wall and guessed what she wanted revenge for...
...I said I was...
...Phil La Follette was to speak at an anti-war rally in Paterson, our largest industrial city...
...rubs salt into wound after wound and then, when some harassed individual turns and pokes the first innocent bystander in the nose, the whole howling chorus screams, "See...
...Jt seems that Mr...
...His purpose...
...just marvelous...
...She wants revenge at any cost...
...Goldberger had never been heard from again...
...Even after the meeting Mr...
...Levy, and Mr...
...Goldberg was not there...
...Suddenly I was suspicious...
...Goldberg then wanted to know if I had seen Dr...
...Was he a friend of the Jew...
...A Cash Racket To the Jews, therefore, I say look your defenders over with care...
...In my own state lives a contributor to the Fight for Freedom Committee, widow of a former attorney for the House of Morgan...
...She is fanatically, almost insanely war-minded...
...One day she flew at a friend of many years standing for her anti-war convictions and then, her rage and her store of epithets having exhausted themselves, she lowered her voice: "Don't misunderstand me, I think Hitler did a marvelous thing in getting rid of the Jews...
...To some editors, to radio's crafty peep-holers, even to certain refugees —to these professional friends of the Jews defense of the Jews has become a good cash racket...
...to refuse the leaflet and we could thus be branded as anti-Semitic...
...The Senator snarled: "He belongs to a race I have no use for...
...He asked me if I knew Dr...
...He was handed an opportunity to reach thousands of people with an important appeal for brotherhood and understanding...
...Leiper's leaflet on anti-Semitism and the committee in charge had promised to receive him and lay a leaflet on every chair...
...Goldberg and was I chairman of the county America First Committee...
...What do you think...
...A week later I happened into the South Jersey office of our Committee...
...I arrived late...
...Goldberger had called one day to ask if Dr...
...I thought no more about it—until an experience two weeks later...
...He couldn't have lost the road because it was a wonderfully clear night and in the heart of the city stood the school, lighted up like a Christmas tree...
...Their vicious technique of seeking to laud Jews by falsely twisting anti-war non-Jews into their enemies, plants anti-Semitism where none existed...
...if I had my way . . ." No, my Jewish friends, you are allowing persons who shout their lungs numb in your defense to deafen you so that you cannot hear what they mutter under their breaths...
...My guess is no...
...He said he was Mr...
...The idea of this mendacious midget surrounded protectively by top-flight gospelers prompts me to reveal an experience...
...I gave him directions for reaching the school and we planned to meet at 8 p. m. in the auditorium...
...The Bashful Stranger I arrived at the school before eight...
...Goldberg and to distribute the leaflets with our other material...
...Levy had not arrived...
...Goldberg never came...
...He was not interested...
...It was certainly not Jewish...
...I consented, saying that if he came early he could distribute them while the audience waited, or he could remain at the literature table at the close...
...Goldberg, Mr...
...So when the storm strikes, these coyotes will all dash to the cyclone cellars leaving their innocent victims to faee the whirlwind...
...As to the press, look with a skeptical eye at those who trumpet your cause in print two inches high...
...Bill" I said, "what did he sound like ?" Bill said he had an accent new to him...
...Goldberg had got lost...
...Were Mr...
...his business was trapping others who he hoped would refuse cooperation...
...They have made them the most exploited minority in the country...
...At 8:30 he had still not come...
...He was told they would be glad to include it with their other material, but alas...
...whatever it was it was not Jewish...
...But listen—I witnessed this...
...And here on this New York platform, as a feature attraction in the battle against anti-Semitism, was that pernicious little lie peddler, who by his own admission, "investigated" for his "book" in similar devious and Nazi-like ways, and under the cover of at least three names...
...pitch dark, thick fog, rain, the roads like greased streaks, and the school off the main highway, extremely difficult to find...
...I distinctly recall wondering about the odd dialect in his speech...
...On an i October afternoon in 1941 I had a telephone call from a stranger...
...Some, even in the clergy, may consider this a decent modus operandi, but the overly sensitive are likely to detect a fine Gestapo twist of the mind...
...Undoubtedly Mr...
...Goldberger the same person...
...Was he a Jew...
...Well, I am evil-minded enough to think that he expected us...
...What rocked me back on my heels was the discovery that, included among the clergymen . speakers, was a cold-blooded character-assassin, author of a current smear book...
...Levy...
...Many Jews think her intense bias to their advantage...
...See what I mean...
...Leiper was a fellow-townsman of mine...
Vol. 8 • March 1944 • No. 13
