Harry A. Gordon stood revealed yesterday as the Jewish red herring across the trail of anti-Semitism which leads directly to the campaign headquarters of former Mayor John F. Hylan, Nazi-endorsed candidate for the Governorship on the “Recovery Party” ticket.
Gordon’s name was one of five submitted by the party as substitutions for those it had previously announced on its state ticket. He is running for an associate judgeship in the Court of Appeals in place of Russell Kruppenbacher of Queens.
Characterizing himself as “a good Jew” and “the son of Orthodox parents,” Gordon branded as ridiculous the charge that Hylan has solicited and obtained almost exclusively Nazi backing, and professed never to have heard that the former mayor has won solid anti-Semitic support in the state.
He explained that he is Hylan’s personal attorney and has been politically associated with him for many years.
“Hylan made me a judge,” Gordon said, referring to his appointment as city magistrate in 1925, a post which he resigned a year and a half later.
Asked whether he would withdraw from the ticket if it could be demonstrated to him beyond doubt that bigotry is united behind the “Recovery Party,” Gordon pointed out that such a procedure is no longer open to him under the law.
The only Jewish candidate in an array blatantly hailed by New York’s most flagrant ranters on the racial issue served as Hylan’s special corporation counsel in the traction fight. He also was a special deputy attorney general, without pay, during the Bank of United States investigation.
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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.
