Aaron Kronenberg has placed himself with the daring of Daniel and the sacrifice of Abraham upon the altar of public service. He believes it is his duty as the chieftain of a public utility to give every man a hearing, regardless of race, creed, and color, temperament or political flair.
As owner of radio station WARD, 427 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, which has an affiliate in Jamaica, Long Island, Mr. Kronenberg, who until last Saturday night entertained the suspicion that he must give every side a hearing, today nurses wounded sensibilities because by sheer accident one of the speakers from his studio turned out to be an American edition of Adolf Hitler.
The story which was unravelled from a mass of confusing details, was enacted by a handful of persons. The lion in the drama was Mr. Kronenberg, a rabbi, he says, only because six generations of forbears were rabbis and he felt it his “duty” to absorb rabbinical learning in deference to them. He doesn’t have a congregation, never had in fact, and makes a living “in public service”.
Three weeks ago, according to the testimony of Kronenberg, one Homer Tomlinson, clergyman extraordinary, signed a thirteen week contract for a weekly broadcast over WARD, Jamaica. The series was to have been simply evangelical in purpose, intended to bring ungodly Christians into the fold. The first two broadcast, delivered on January 6 and 13 by Pastor Tomlinson, were harmless in tenor; what invectives were sent through the ether lashed only the irreligious in general and irreligious Gentiles in particular.
On Saturday evening by some mistake the Tomlinson address coincided with a program of the pride of Judea orphans Home, Dumont Avenue, Brooklyn.
MYSTERIOUS COMPLAINT
Rabbi Kronenberg’s explanation why Pastor Tomlinson’s speech was cut off was not convincing. He said that at precisely 10:45 p.m. he pulled out the plug cutting off Tomlinson and announced the program of the Orphans Home. He added that a mysterious telephone complaint had warned him that Tomlinson was on the point of setting off explosives.
The writer listened to the Tomlinson “expose” delivered Sunday at the Jamaica Tabernacle, as well as to the Kronenberg explanation yesterday at his studio on Fulton Street. Brooklyn. The visit followed numerous complaints to the Jewish Daily Bulletin.
The Brooklyn studios of WARD are elegant and prosperous looking. Mr. Kronenberg is heavy set and uses a modulated shout for emphasis. He belittled the suggestion that his rabbinate is unrecorded or that he was not ordained. He asserted that as a member of the Rabbinical Assembly of the United States and rather peddle carrots than preach for a living.
“For six generations in Kovno my fathers have been rabbis. None of them has ever practised. They received their degrees for being crudite, and did not make a living with their religion.” Rabbi Kronenberg hinted broadly that he is not a little satisfied with the upheaval which followed the announcement of the trouble he had with the Tomlinson broadcast.
A visitor in the studio said: “What’s this, Kronenberg, a publicity stunt?”
Mr. Kronenberg’s son said: “What are you talking about? He hasn’t slept for two nights.”
Rabbi Kronenberg said: “I haven’t slept for two nights.”
He spoke of the bitter rivalry among the four broadcasting stations in Brooklyn, WBBC, WARD, WLTH and WVFW, all licensed on the same wave length. He said that if his thirteen-week contract with Tomlinson is broken, the elergyman will bring suit, adding that the contract was violated by Tomlinson and that the suit has no ground for action.
DENIES SABBATH BROADCAST
Mr. Kronenberg denied that he broadcasts on the Sabbath. “I am away from the studio on Saturday. I don’t even know what’s going on here,” he said.
In Mr. Tomlinson’s Sunday sermon, he made statements reminiscent of a good many broadside attacks which lately have been coming from Germany. His language was couched in vivid phraseology aimed at the Jews, although he admitted the possibility that “some of them are all right.”
The substance of his sermon, based on an exerpt from the Old Testament, was that all the upbraiding sounded by the prophets of old has been realized in the persecution of the Jewish people. Tomlinson read from a manuscript written in 1905 which purported to be a prediction by Jewish “plotters” that the world would go into gnarled and shapeless upheaval as a result of Jewish machination. The speaker cited economic conditions prevailing today which he insisted are the predictions come to life.
PROUD OF INTERVIEWS
He made much of the fact that several newspapers took the trouble to send reporters for interviews, with him following his outburst: Referring to himself as the “falling leaf” he voiced the hope that Jews would someday be converted to worship Jesus.
“Boy,” he shouted, “wouldn’t I like to be in heaven when all the rabbis fall down on their knees and shout ‘hallelujah.’ But Christ will forgive them, and perhaps take them all out of hell and give them seats in heaven.”
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.
