A jury in a local court handed down today a $30,000 award against Conde McGinley, publisher of the anti-Semitic sheet “Common Sense,” for libelling Rabbi Joachim Prinz of Newark.
The jury awarded Dr. Prinz $5,000 compensatory damages and $25,000 in punitive damages. Dr. Prinz had brought suit because a 1952 issue of “Common Sense,” which was recently listed in a congressional report on neo-Nazi and hate organizations, had referred to Dr. Prinz as “red Rabbi Dr. Joachim Prinz, who, not unlike Albert Einstein, was expelled from Germany for revolutionary, Communist activities.”
In a statement immediately after the jury rendered its verdict, Dr. Prinz declared:
“The issue in this case was freedom from smear. It was not merely a case of defamation of a person. I never doubted that the libellous allegations would be proved completely false and without foundation. My belief in the sense of justice and decency which is so much a part of the American way of life was always strong and the manner in which the trial was conducted and the verdict rendered only deepens my faith in America.
“The verdict not only vindicates me personally, but it also vindicates all the groups with which I have associated, most notably the American Jewish Congress, which because of its fight for justice and decency and against Communists and Fascists alike has been the principal target. This fight vindicates the American Jewish Congress.
“Those who preach hate, defamation and prejudice have been exposed. The technique of lies and slander has been rejected in the American way.”
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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.
