Rabbi Meir Kahane and about 20 members of the Jewish Defense League staged a sit-in at the offices of the American Civil Liberties Union today to protest ACLU support for the right of a neo-Nazi group to march through a Chicago suburb July 4. The neo-Nazi National Socialist Party won its Supreme Court case last week.
A visibly upset Aryeh Neier, executive director of the ACLU and himself a Jewish refugee from Berlin in 1939, told the JTA: “Even Nazis support freedom of speech for the people they agree with. The more difficult test is do you believe in free speech of people whose views you can’t stand. We believe in free speech, that’s all.”
Kahane, founder of the JDL, said: “Those who preach racist genocide and Nazi totalitarianism should have no rights since their aim is to deprive all others of their rights, and to massacre millions of innocent Americans.” Kahane told the JTA. “There will be no parade.” He added that if violence appeared likely, city officials could prevent the parade. (By Brian Lipsitz)
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.
