New Jersey Governor Richard J. Hughes joined civic and Jewish leaders this weekend in deploring a statement by Newton Miller, vice-president of the Wayne Township School Board, who had urged the defeat of two Jewish candidates in the school board election on Tuesday. Replying to a request by the American Jewish Congress, calling for the removal of Mr. Miller from his post, Gov. Hughes said, however, that he lacks the authority to dismiss the School Board official, because the latter was elected by the people.
Earlier, Mr. Miller said that he would not resign, even after the School Board voted 8 to 1 to censure him and had asked for his resignation. More than 500 persons crowded the Municipal Building of this township of 45,000 for the meeting at which all Board members, except Miller, voted for the resolution. Most of them applauded the vote. The resolution censured Miller “for an appeal to bigotry contrary to the principles we set out to engender in our children.”
The vote followed an apology by Miller, 47, an engineer for New Jersey Bell Telephone Company. In his apology to the township’s 2,000 Jews, Miller refused to retract or modify his statement, in which he had said “most Jewish people are liberals, especially when it comes to spending for education.” He had referred to the candidacies of Jack Mandell, an incumbent, and Robert Kraus, and noted that another incumbent, Fred Lafer, was Jewish. He added, in his statement, that if Mr. Mandell and Mr. Kraus were elected next Tuesday, “it would take only two more votes for a majority, and Wayne could be in real financial trouble.” Then he declared: “Two more votes and we could lose what is left of Christ in our Christmas celebrations.”
TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS DENOUNCE MILLER; REFUSES TO RESIGN
Miller was immediately denounced by a number of township officials and leaders. He called a news conference at which he said many Wayne township Jews had been his “staunch supporters” and that “all I can say is the release was not intended to convey what you read into it.” “I have no intention of resigning,” he said after the censure vote. Sol Ruggiero, the Board attorney, said there was no legal precedent for removing a Board member. Miller is not up for reelection.
Mr. Mandell sat next to Miller at the Board meeting. After listening to Miller talk about their long friendship, Mandell said: “You’re right, Newt. We have been friends but it grieves me to say that you are an anti-Semite and a bigot.”
Comment was severe. Mayor Edward Sisco said “he has gone too far.” Andrew Militello, president of the Wayne Parent Teachers Council, said “I am sick over this.” Rabbi Shai Shacknai, of Temple Beth Tikvah, said: “The Jewish people in Wayne will survive this regression to the Middle Ages. My concern at the moment is not for the Jews but for Wayne. I shall do whatever I can to assure that Mr. Miller does not represent the community of Wayne again.”
Danial Blum, editor of Wayne Today, said the reaction had startled him, adding “what local leaders are really screaming about is that this came into the open. They think that sweeping things under the rug will make them disappear.”
Richard P. Marcus, who in 1961 became the first Jewish councilman here, said “I was shocked. There are really conservative roots in Wayne’s history — things like high-school kids wearing swastikas — but I think it is a fringe group that does things like that.”
In 1959, Wayne Township high school authorities broke up a school ring recruiting members for a club called “The Nazi Regime of America.” Twelve students were suspended, all from middle-class suburban families, mostly in the Lake Packanack section.
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.
