The charge that “paid publicity agents” had exaggerated children’s scribbling on synagogue buildings into a “phantom of anti-Semitic hate for the deliberate besmirching of the minority Catholic population of this area.” was made yesterday by Bishop J. Francis A. McIntyre, addressing 1,000 members of the Catholic Court Attaches Guild at a communion breakfast in the Hotel Roosevelt.
As an example of the publicity he was condemning, Bishop Mclntyre indicated that the “March of Time” news motion-picture organization, had re-enacted the desecration of a Jewish synagogue in Washington eights. He said that professional child actors were used “to portray the supposed desecration.”
“Under the heading of toleration” the Bishop said, “action of this kind is employed, which in reality is inciting hatred, enmity and violent dislike. Obviously, this inconsistency is basically intellectual dishonesty and, what is more, a flagrant abuse of freedom of the press and freedom of speech. It is most un-American in spirit. In fact, it is ruthless sabotage. Being done with the blare of trumpets and the waving of the American flag, this inconsistency looms up as even more than sabotage; it is treason to the American way of life.”
Richard de Rochemont, producer of March of Time, said cameramen and professional child actors re-enacted an act of vandalism at the Temple of the Covenant, on Feb. 25 with the permission of Harold Mashioff, rabbi of the temple. He said the re-enactment of the incident – the marking of the word “Jew” on the outer temple wall was to form one of a series of illustrative incidents in a film on tolerance and that the incident actually had taken place several months ago. An outline of the film, which was intended “to reprove anti-Semitism, bigotry and racial prejudice,” had been approved by the National Conference of Christians and Jews before the filming of the production was begun, he disclosed.
Rabbi Mashioff revealed that he had been asked to cooperate with the March of Time by the Anti-Defamation League and had been told that it was planned to film mock desecrations of a Protestant and a Catholic church as well as his own temple. He said that the synagogue had been defaced several times in recent months.
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.
