Alleged snobbery practiced in certain Jewish clubs, resulting in discrimination against one class of Jews by another was attacked by Dr. Stephen S. Wise in his sermon Sunday on “Jewish Snobs, Turncoats and Cowards” at the Free Synagogue, Carnegie Hall.
Referring to Justice Arthur S. Tompkins’ withdrawal form the Metropolitan Mason’s Country Club because it excluded Jews from membership, Dr. Wise declared: “It was something for which I had been waiting fifty-four years,” he exclaimed. “And now I shall wait fifty-four more years for a Jew to resign from a Jewish club, because there are as many mean, contemptible snobs in them as there are in the Christian organizations.”
He quoted from the application blank of a fashionable Jewish club on the North Shore of Long Island, which required the birthplace of the applicant’s father, mother, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law and grand-parents.
“They don’t want anyone who comes from stock born in Eastern Europe,” Dr. Wise declared.
Dr. Wise denounced those who were responsible for the production of the motion picture, “King of Kings.” which he called an insult to the Jewish people.
“It was produced by a half-Jew,” he said. “It is being distributed by Jews and shown in Jewish theatres. The very men whom it insults are making money from it, They are selling their souls for a mess of pottage.”
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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.
