Attacking “burlessque theatreas and other centers of obscenity and cice,” and protesting that conditions are as bad as they were last year, the Committee on Social Ethics of the New York Board of Jewish Ministers yesterday charged that political influence still protected sinster sources in the municipality.
Certain sections of the city must be cleaned up, the committee urges on the basis of evidence gathered about indecent theatre productions and obscene publications displayed on the newsstands. Complaining that no action was taken by the authorities in the past, the statement of the ministers expresses hope for “the cooperation of the officers fo the present administration.” The present situation is termed “a menace to the morals of the community.”
NOT FOR CENSORSHIP
The committee claim that the ministers it represents “do not believe in censorship, but they do believe emphatically in sanitation. Together with the ministers of the Catholic and Protestant churches, with whom they have cooperated inthe past, they are deeply disturbed over the sources of moral contagion that have develiped in New York City, and are determined to do thier utmost to remove these cesspools of evil from tghe midst of the community.”
Arrangements are under way, according to the statement, for a conference with city officials.
The committee studying the vice question is headed by Rabbi Sidney E. Goldstein of the Free Synagogue. Other members are Rabbis Max Drob, Leo Jung, William F. Rosenblum, Elias Solomon and Sidney Tedesche. The New York Board of Jewish Ministers includes more than 100 rabbis, representing Orthodex, Conservative and Reform elements.
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