The resignation from the John Birch Society of Prof. Revilo P. Oliver, known for his outspoken views against the Jews, was confirmed today to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by the headquarters of the Society here. However, no comment could be obtained on whether Oliver’s resignation had anything to do with his anti-Jewish views, which he expressed at a rally last month in Boston. The rally, on July 2, evoked strong criticism against him and against the John Birch Society.
Prof. Oliver, a teacher of Greek and Latin at the University of Illinois, is a founder of the Society. He was one of the 11 men who attended the Society’s initial organizational meeting at a motel in Indianapolis in 1958. He was a member of the organization’s 25-member ruling council and associate editor of American Opinion, the Society’s official organ. His resignation was attributed to a dispute over his anti-Semitic views and to his dissatisfaction over the complete authority over affairs of the Birch Society held by Robert E. Welch, Jr., principal founder and president of the Society.
Prof. Oliver was the principal speaker at the July 2 New England Rally for God, Family and Country in Boston. In a speech lasting more than an hour, he attacked what he called the “conspiracy of the Jews” and asserted that the “conspiracy” antedated “the conspiracy of the Illuminati and the Communists” and had helped produce “the evils of today.” He asserted that one of the reasons for many of the protests on American college campuses was the spread of drugs, particularly LSD, which he said was “imported from Israel.”
He was also reported as saying at the rally that “it is a lie that the Nazis killed 6,000,000 Jews, ” He also told the rally hypothetically that “if only by some miracle all the Bolsheviks, or all the Illuminati, or all Jews were vaporized tomorrow, we should have nothing more to worry about. The trouble with that beatific vision, of course, is that every educated man knows it just can’t be so.”
(The New York Times reported today that Prof. Oliver declined to discuss his differences with the Birch Society and denied that anti-Semitism had been an issue in his resignation.)
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.
