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Hitler-made Anti-semitism May Destroy Fabric of America, Judge Proskauer Warns

September 22, 1944
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Declaring that “the removal of inter-group tensions in America today is a task of vital necessity,” Judge Joseph M. Proskauer, president of the American Jewish Committee, warned today that “Hitler-made” political anti-Semitism is a threat to the American way of life. Speaking on the subject of “Inter-Group Tensions” at the forum sponsored by Christ Church, Judge Proskauer said;

“If by the careless word, the phrase of double meaning, the unfounded ridicule and charge, Americans in their everyday conduct turn the Constitutional guarantees of freedom for the Jew and all other men into a meaningless legalism, they will at once destroy the fabric of America and blase the trail for many another persecution of sect by sect.”

As his solution for inter-group tensions, Judge Proskauer suggested that all the forces of civilization, — religion, government and mankind itself must “preserve and enhance the dignity and the glory of the individual whom God has made but little lesser than the angels. The solution for group tension in America,” he said, “is nothing more than complete loyalty to the ideal of the sanctity of the individual man, which is the ideal of Christianity.

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