Citing prominent Jews who have played a part in the building of America and in the development of Columbia University, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President of the University, last night assailed anti-Semitism in an address to the freshman class of Columbia College.
He warned the class of 45 to beware of anti-Semitic persecution which has been “violently and publicly revived in this country within the last few weeks or months;” and characterized as a “grotesque departure from fact,” the assertion that “all who belong to one race or profess one creed are of one mind in everything that relates to their public relationships.”
“We cannot protest too vigorously against racial or religious discrimination,” declared Dr. Butler. “It may be the Ku Klux Klan persecuting the Catholic; it may be the anti-Semites persecuting the Jews: but persecution on racial or religious grounds has absolutely no place in a nation given over to liberty which calls itself a democracy.”
Among the prominent Jews mentioned by Dr. Butler were Rabbi Garshom Seixas, trustee of Columbia in the early nineteenth century and the first rabbi to preach English in a synagogue, who, Dr. Butler said, played a large part in developing the University, and Jonathan Nathan of the class of 1827 who was Secretary of State for eight years.
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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.
