“America is more than a mere geographic division,” according to Oscar Leonard, executive secretary of the American Jewish Congress. Speaking before the Norwalk section of the American Jewish Center here, he insisted that “America is a state of mind, something for which one strives.”
“I did not say America for the Germans or the Russians or the Italians. If these people find that living under dictatorships suits them, let them have their dictatorships. But as Americans we have right, nay a solemn duty to demand that neither Russia nor Italy nor Germany try to force their ways upon us.”
Mr. Leonard said that people of German blood have from time to time fled from the Prussian tyrants because American ideals were dear to the hearts of these exiles. “These men would not rest in their graves if they knew that in their names deluded or sleeking agitators are trying to break down American ways and substitute for these the things which drove decent men and women from Germany in the forties of the last century and today.”
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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.
