A number of protests have been filed against the institution of an anti-Jewish boycott by Nazi elements in New York and the anti-Jewish rally scheduled to be held on May 17 in Madison Square Garden, it became known yesterday. Mayor LaGuardia is considering the protests, but whether or not he will take action to ban both the boycott and the anti-Jewish demonstration could not be learned yesterday.
Among the most recent protests against the boycott is one drafted Saturday by the Minute Men of the United States, an anti-Nazi and anti-Communist organization headed by Edgar Burman, past commander of the Jewish War Veterans. His letter of protest will be handed the Mayor this morning.
The Minute Men state that the anti-Nazi boycott undertaken by various Jewish and non-sectarian groups is in no way directed at American citizens of German descent or against Germans living in this country unless they handle goods made in Nazi Germany. They further state that civic sanction of a boycott against Jewish citizens of the United States and such anti-Jewish demonstrations as is planned for Thursday’s celebration will aggravate the condition of race hatred, which has already gained headway under the manipulation of Hitler’s agents here.
BERNSTEIN PROTESTS
Another letter of protest against a license being granted, written to the Mayor by the Hon. Herman Bernstein, former United States Minister to Albania and present editor of the Jewish Daily Bulletin, was delivered Saturday. As yet the Mayor has offered no comment.
A protest filed early in the week by the Blue Men of America, anti-Nazi boycott group with headquarters in Brooklyn, received a curt rejection by Aldermanic President Bernard S. Deutsch. The Blue Men are taking their case to the Mayor, and they expect some action on their demands today.
Meanwhile Nazis are distributing pink circulars throughout New York announcing the boycott meeting. They were found thrown inside and pasted on motor cars beside German steamship piers.
17,000 MEMBERS
The Friends of New Germany and the United German Societies are sponsoring the meeting, which is designed to bring into the fold of the DAWA, anti-Jewish boycott organization of their creation, new membership. The DAWA, it is understood, has already gained more than 17,000 members in New York and nearby cities. Boycotting consumers pay $1 each membership fee. Shops pay amounts ranging from $5 to $150 each for the privilege of appearing on the white list of the Nazis. The fees exacted from the latter are defined by Yorkville merchants as “protection money.” Subscribers to the DAWA are granted immunity from the “whispering campaign,” which has already driven to ruin a number of nonconforming shops in Yorkville and which has severely affected the enterprise of virtually every Jewish business house in that section of the city.
A number of statements published earlier indicate beyond doubt that Jews are automatically enjoined from becoming members of the DAWA. Their applications for membership and initiation fees have been returned to them on numerous occasions. Other published instances likewise show that all Jews, whether or not they handle German goods (and many subsist entirely on the sale of German merchandise to German-Americans) are boycotted merely because they happen to be Jews.
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