The charge that Zionists in the United States are making an effort “to segregate Jews from the current of American culture” and to instill in their minds a sense of “belonging spiritually elsewhere” was made today by Dr. Wirginia C. Gildersleeve, leader of a pro-Arab group in this country and former dean of Barnard College, addressing a meeting of the American Council for Judaism at the Henry Hudson Hotel.
Miss Gildersleeve also complained that “the greatest poets in our literature have been attacked as ‘anti-Semitic’ because they have sometimes treated legends common at their time.” She cited the fact that “The Frioress’ Tale” was “left out of a new modern-English Chaucer,” and that “it has been proposed that ‘The Merchant of Venice’ be omitted from school reading lists.” She also objected to the fact that “pickets have marched before movie houses to prevent the showing of a screen version of Dickams’ “Oliver Twist.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.