The attorney for a group of neo-Nazis said in Circuit Court yesterday that his clients would not march on July 4 in Skokie–a heavily Jewish-populated suburb–in violation of a standing injunction. Atlorney David Goldberger, of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) made the statement to Judge Archibald J. Carey Jr. during a hearing on another suit against his client, Nazi leader Frank Collin.
That suit, seeking a permanent injunction against Nazi marches in Skokie, was filed by Sol Goldstein, one of several thousand Holocaust survivors living in Skokie. It is a class suit contending that the survivors would suffer “severe emotional distress” if the Nazi march was held.
The standing injunction against the march was secured by Skokie officials on April 28 on grounds that violence would take place between the openly anti-Semitic, racist Nazis and Skokie’s large Jewish population. That case is to be argued in Appellate Court July 8 under a U.S. Supreme Court order that the injunction either be lifted or that the appeal be expedited.
Skokie, on June 28, also refused the Nazis permission to march on July 4 under a recently passed ordinance prohibiting marches by people wearing military-style uniforms “repugnant” to village residents. The Nazis had refused to march in civilian clothes.
COUNTER-MOVES IN THE OFFING
Goldstein, a former president of the local Holocaust survivors group, is a board member of the Jewish Federation and Jewish United Fund (JUF) of Metropolitan Chicago. He also heads a special committee of the JUF’s Public Affairs Committee created to frame the community’s response to Nazi plans. Goldstein’s attorney, Jerome Torshen, advised Judge Carey that even if the Skokie ordinance was declared illegal and the injunction lifted, the Nazis should not be permitted to march until all litigation in the matter is resolved.
As matters now stand, the Nazis probably will not appear in Skokie July 4. However, enraged Jewish residents, Black groups and left-wing and other anti-Nazi organizations have stated that they will turn out in force and use force to stop the Nazis if they show up. The JUF’s Public Affairs Committee’s special committee has urged people not to counter-demonstrate. The committee intends to organize a “patriotic American rally” at the Mayer Kaplan Jewish Community Center in Skokie on July 4 as a “positive form of expression.”
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