In an address before the graduates of Roanoke College in Salem today, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise warned that “the spirit of Hitlerism, which has poisoned and devastated the land of Bach, Beethoven, and Kant, is attempting to penetrate America.”
“If this movement should succeed here,” Rabbi Wise declared, “only the framework and letter of America will remain.”
“I warn you,” admonished the rabbi, “of the onrush of that spirit into America.”
Rabbi Wise prefaced his denunciation of Hitlerism with the statement, “It is an issue which means more to me than any other. We must thank God for the Protestant ministers of Germany who are today opposing Nazi doctrine that would make the Church a subsidiary of the State. It means enslavement and therefore neutralization of Christianity,” he concluded, stating that he views the problem not as a Jew but as a religious American.
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