At the funeral services in Marion, N. C, for the four strikers who were slain Wednesday, the Rev. Dr. James Meyer, of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, read a declaration from Rabbi Edward L. Israel, of the Har Sinai Temple, Baltimore. Rabbi Israel is chairman of the Commission on Social Justice of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
“Let us first of all,” the declaration stated, “extend through you to the bereaved families, the heartfelt sympathies of the Social Justice Commission of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
“It is indeed fragic that men must be murdered before fundamental human rights can be secured. It is high time that the State of North Carolina recognize its obligation to protect the lives of its citizens in the struggle for a decent industrial livelihood at fair wages and human hours.
“The cry of radical or Communist cannot be used in the Marion murders. There was ruthless and unwarranted cruelty against men whose only weapon in obtaining better livelihoods was through the protest of a strike.
“The murders cannot be condoned; punishment must be meted out. The State itself must provide for the families it deprived of the bread winners. Justice knows no other course.
“And above all, the barbarism of the mob spirit, exemplifled in the outbreaks of violence in North Carolina, must cease if the unusually high reputation their State has gained in recent years is to remain untarnished.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
