A call to Americans to fight against “hatred and terror that Fascism and Communism have let loose in the world, ” was voiced here by Philip M. Klutznick, international president of B’nai B’rith, addressing the 86th annual convention of the organization’s District Grand Lodge Six at the Hotel Schroeder.
Pointing out that the virus of hate was being used to destroy people and nations, Mr. Klutznick denounced the persecution of Jews in Communist Rumania as “an out-burst of anti-Semitism and a diabolically clever design of the Soviet Union to court the favor of the Arab States by this demonstration of unfriendliness to Jews.” He cited the recent report on Germany by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith to show that the hatred sown by the Nazis against Jews still exists.
“The virus of hate, ” he said, “is being spread in Austria, where restitution was recently authorized for Nazis while their victims still waited for the return of their stolen property; in South Africa, where the race conflict is so intense that the Jewish community there lives in great fear; and in the Middle East, where Arab and Jew live in fear and violence.”
In a reference to the rise of demagogues in this country, Mr. Klutznick said: “The intrusion of this particular virus of hate into our national life is perhaps appropriately discussed on this platform in this state without the mention of names and without reference to individuals. It seems difficult to understand what the end will be when I hear people–some of them people of great intelligence–say, ‘I do not like the methods but I agree with the objectives and, therefore, it is all right with me.’ They have forgotten that democracy and freedom are a method as well as an objective.”
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.
