DECLARING SUPPRESSION AND GAG LAW WERE NOT SUFFICIENT, JAMES N. ROSENBERG, NEW YORK LAWYER, TODAY URGED THAT DEMOCRACY “LOOK AND LISTEN” TO MEET THE MENACE OF GROUP DEFAMATION. HE ADDRESSED THE INSTITUTE OF HUMAN RELATIONS SPONSORED HERE BY THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF JEWS AND CHRISTIANS.
DEFAMING OF GROUPS IS A DEVICE WHEREBY DEMAGOGUES BECOME DICTATORS, AND BY PERSECUTING ONE GROUP ALL GROUPS CHOOSE THEIR OWN DOOM, MR. ROSENBERG SAID.
“BEGINNING BY VILIFYING THE WEAKEST, FOR THE PRETENDED GOOD OF LARGER GROUPS, PATRIOTEERS AND PURVEYORS OF CLASS HATE BEGUILE NATIONS INTO THROWING AWAY THEIR LIBERTIES. TOO LATE, SCIENCE, ART, LETTERS, LABOR, PRIESTS AND PASTORS, THE CHRISTIANS OF GERMANY LEARNED THAT OPPRESSION OF A SCAPEGOAT MINORITY WAS ONLY A PRELUDE. ALL OF THESE GROUPS WERE ALSO MINORITIES WHOM DICTATORSHIP, WHICH KNOWS NO GOD BUT ITS OWN FORCE, STIFLES AND SHACKLES.”
HE STRESSED THAT TODAY SCIENCE, POWER PRESSES, EDITORIALS IN DAILY NEWSPAPERS, TELEPHONES, MOTION PICTURES AND RADIO HAVE SO ENLARGED THE REACH OF WORDS THAT THE THREAT OF GROUP DEFAMATION HAS BECOME AN IMPORTANT PROBLEM.
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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.
