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Jews in N. J. Investigating Silver Shirts

February 13, 1934
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Following disclosures that the Silver Legion of the Silver Shirts of America is organizing in Newark, racial sentiment was rallied yesterday to a counter attack on the principles and plans of the anti-Jewish body. Two rabbis and two officials of Jewish lodges are investigating propaganda activities of William Dudley Pelley’s organization.

Rabbi Joseph Konvitz, president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, said he would instruct members of this organization here and in the state to scan all progaganda activities attributed to the Silver Legion. The Legion held its first meeting in this city Fridat. The local press was ruged by Rabbi Herman L. Kahan, leader of the Schley Street Congregation, to expose completely the aims of the Silver Shirts. He stated that “The Silver Legion and the Silver. Shirts constitute a distinct menace to American institutions.”

Both A. Sigmund Kanengieser, past grand master of the Independent Order Brith Sholom, and Sidney Finkel, president if Ezekiel Lodge, B’nai B’rith, decared that they would take immediate steps to have their organizations investigate reported plans for the formation of a Silver Legion in Newark.

Friday’s session here was held at 18 East Park street, supposedly under the auspices of the Foundation for Christian Economics. The meeting, attended by sixteen persons, was suddenly disrupted when a chemical bomb was hurled through a window of the conference room.

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