“Justice to the negroes and ‘poor whites’ of the South must be a part of the New Deal, and those who, for racial or economic reasons, refuse to practice justice must be warned lest they stir up resentment with dangerous consequences in the offing,” declared Rabbi Louis I. Newman, speaking at Congregation Rodeph Sholom, 7 West Eighty-third street, yesterday. “One of the chief messages of John Wexley’s magnificent drama, ‘They Shall Not Die,’ is the need for the restoration of the economic position of the underprivileged white class of the southern states. The ravages of the Civil War, the low status of popular education, the exploitation of the workers, and the dissemination of fanaticism, racial and religious, have made the south a breeding center for many of the worst ills to which our nation is heir.
“It is no accident that John Wexley, who wrote ‘They Shall Not Die,’ is a Jew,” Dr. Newman continued, and that the chief protagonist of justice in the drama is likewise a Jew; moreover, that the adversary in the eyes of the benighted and prejudice-ridden southern folk is the so-called ‘Jew money from New York. Whenever individual Jews interest themselves in unpopular causes they bring upon themselves a veritable fury of wrath from those whose attitude they challenge. But there is within the bosom of every Jew, worthy the heritage of the prophets from which he springs, a burning impulse to bring to pass the reign of justice, and an irresistible urge to oppose specific instances of economic and social persecution.”
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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.
