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Jewish Memorial Meetings Held in Pointed Answers to Swastika Smears

January 12, 1960
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As new reports of anti-Semitic manifestations all over the world were received. Jewish leadership today took note of resurgent Nazism in various manners, ranging from memorial services to warnings against panic.

Meetings commemorating Jewish martyrs of Nazism and fascism were held in many cities, from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to Rome, Stockholm and Brussels.

In Paris, 1, 000 non-Jewish and Jewish demonstrators, led by rabbis as well as by prominent Catholic and Protestant leaders, marched silently through the city streets to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Jewish Martyr.

In Amsterdam, Chief Rabbi Aaron Schuster advised the Dutch people, over a national television hook-up, not to view the anti-Semitic incidents as a danger to the Jewish community in The Netherlands.

Label A. Katz, international president of B’nai B’rith, cautioned in an address at Peoria, Hi, , against Jumping to “speculative conclusions” in regard to the spread of anti-Semitic incidents, “It would be harmful, ” he said, “to exaggerate the implications of what has been taking place. ” He warned that “developments cannot be evaluated with clarity until investigations show where a possible neo-Nazi conspiracy ends–and the dementia and hooliganism of psychopaths and delinquents begin. It is vital to separate the malcontents and juvenile pranksters from the organized conspirators. “

At Montreal, U.S. Senator Jacob K, Javits of New York, addressing a convention of the Canadian Hadassah and Women’s International Zionist Organization, viewed the current anti-Semitic incidents as “a kind of chain reaction by ultra right-wing elements in different countries, set off by the neo-Nazi spark in Germany.”

Senator Javits held that “the painted smears and hate slogans” need not be considered as “heralding a new revival of organized anti-Semitism.” But he warned that the incidents “sound a warning, not only to Jews, but to people of all faiths that we dare not dismiss except at our own peril.”

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