The Council on Racial Equality sent a telegram today to Mayor Robert F. Wagner demanding an investigation into a physical assault on Rabbi Kurt Flascher, an official of CORE, in a Greenwich Village coffee house.
Rabbi Flascher was discussing the Eichmann trial with another CORE official when he was interrupted by two young men at a nearby table, who were described as blond, in their early 20’s and crewcut. The rabbi said one of the men came over to him and said “We Germans are not going to take this. Hitler should have killed all the Jews” and the two men began to punch the rabbi, shouting “Jews are lice. vermin.” Then they fled.
The rabbi’s nose was broken in the assault. Somebody ran for a police officer to whom the rabbi described the incident. The officer was skeptical, asserting “there are no Nazis walking the streets of New York.” Rabbi Flascher, who teaches at Yeshiva University, assured the police that the attack was unprovoked.
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