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Brith Sholom Report Favors Group Libel Legislation in United States

December 18, 1963
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A committee of Brith Sholom has submitted a report approving group libel legislation, I. Irving Tubis, president, announced here today. Other major Jewish national organizations oppose such legislation.

The committee recommended legislation “to curtail the publishing and distribution of material that intentionally and maliciously defames any racial, religious or ethnic group or which advocates injury to their person or property, or worse, their extinction.”

Asserting that laws could be written which would “stand the test of constitutionality,” the committee denied the stand of foes of such legislation that it would abridge freedom of speech. The committee said that in the most liberal interpretation, “the hateful fabrications disseminated by racists, which seek to rob a particular group of its dignity and/or its life, cannot be equated with legitimate speech.”

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