Philadelphia’s five-man Congressional delegation has protested Federal participation in an Arkansas road project which it charges will serve a religious tourist attraction operated by a front organization of Gerald L.K. Smith. In a letter to Secretary of Transportation John A. Volpe, the Congressmen urged that funds for the project be denied. Signing the letter were Reps. William A. Barrett, Robert N.C. Nix, James A. Byrne, Joshua Filberg and William J. Green, all Democrats. The Congressmen charged that “use of Federal funds for this project will make the Federal government a partner in the promotion of hate mongering and anti-Semitism.” “Federal aid programs were not designed for purposes such as these,” they added.
The tourist attraction at Eureka Springs, a seven-story statue called “Christ of the Ozarks” and the Passion Play, are operated by the Elna M. Smith Foundation. In their letter, they referred to a report by the National Jewish Community Relations Council which characterizes the play as an “anti-Semitic tract , the whole theme of which is that Jews are guilty of decide.” “Centuries of prejudice, hate and bloodletting have flowed from that loathsome can’t,” the five Congressmen asserted, “and it is hardly the appropriates business of the United States government to assist its continued propagation.”
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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.
