Sokolow’s Testimony Gives Lie to Allegations of Grey Shirts

the words complained of were true in substance and in fact and were for the public benefit.

SHIRT LEADERS APPEAR

Mr. H. G. Reynolds, K. C., with him Mr. W. Stewart, appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. L. Pinshaw holds a watching brief for M. Lazarus, whose name was mentioned in the proceedings. The three Grey Shirt leaders appeared in person.

Mr. Reynolds referred to the document in question as one of the foulest nature. At certain interdict procedings, affidavits were filed and in one, Inch gave details as to how he stole the document from the Western Road Synagogue. He also described how on March 17 he obtained certain documents which made him suspect that there were documents to be obtained in the synagogue, but Mr. Reynolds proposed to show that Inch’s description of the interior of the synagogue proved that he had never been in it.

Rev. Levy, giving evidence, said that he had been in charge of the Western Road Synagogue for twenty years. He was chairman of the education committee of the school board and a member of the committee of the Child Welfare Society.

On March 24, when he left the synagogue, there was no red curtain there and he had never known a red curtain to be there. There was a blue curtain. The lectern was not a place suitable for keeping papers, and papers were not kept there. The door which Inch described as the one by which he had said that he had left the synagogue was the one door which was locked with a key. A man of Inch’s build could just get through the window, but if anyone went up to that window he could be seen by the neighbors. All papers were kept in the vestry, where there was a safe.

The document was absolutely false, said Mr. Levy, and he knew nothing about other documents to which Inch had referred.

IGNORANCE OF HEBREW SHOWN

At the top of the document appeared the words “Kosher Lepesach,” which meant fit for Passover. This was the usual label appearing on articles of drink or food, but he had never known the phrase to be applied to literature. The letter “R” in Hebrew on the document looked like a “D,” and this and a great many other things signified that the writer knew nothing at all about Hebrew. One letter meant for “s” was actually an “m,” and all the Hebrew letters were badly formed. None of them could have been written by any literate Hebrew. In one issue of the Jewish Chronicle one could find all the phrases, and the whole document was a forgery. He connected the language of the document with the language of the notorious “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

He had never heard of the Select High Circle of the Anti-Nazi Propaganda Society, which was the organization which was alleged to have issued the document. His synagogue had no council such as was referred to in the documents, but a committee. He had no antagonism to the Protestant and Catholic Churches, nor did he know anything about a world Socialistic movement. The Jews had nothing to do with Communism.

The witness gave exhaustive evidence on Jewish customs, laws and religious beliefs in refutation of certain pamphlets which had been distributed. Many of the alleged quotations were deliberate forgeries or mistranslations, and these publications were absolutely abhorrent to him.

JEWS HAVE NO OCCULT MOVEMENT

Cross-examined by Inch, the witness said he was taking action against the defendants because he considered the good name of himself and the whole of Jewry had been defamed. It was a filthy, blasphemous and scurrilous document.

He was not responsible for anyone entering the synagogue or for the organizations that used it. If they left any documents lying about, he was not responsible. The synagogue was the last place one would expect to find such a document. The Jews had no occult movement in their midst.

Mr. Inch: Did not Jacob use camouflage to get the birthright? I am here to fight the cause of my fatherland. You have no fatherland, therefore you can afford to pay these people to sweat for you.

Cross-examined by von Moltke, Rev. Levy said that the Jews did not pervert Christianity. His religion was Judaism, and he was subordinate ecclesiastically to no one. He supposed that the Port Elizabeth Press was sympathetic to him because he had earned its sympathy. He had never spoken against the South African Gentile Nationalist Socialist movement or the South African Grey Shirt movement.

CHRISTIAN UPHOLDS JEWS

Professor Dingemans said he had studied Hebrew since the age of sixteen and had maintained his studies ever since. He was still teaching Hebrew. He was a philologist and a Christian.

He had made a careful examination of the document and had come to the conclusion that it was not all that it pretended to be, namely, a secret document drawn up by an educated Jew. There were defective Hebrew characters and ludicrous incongruities between the Hebrew words and the purpose of the lectures. The document was a clumsy and unconvincing attempt to reproduce Hebrew characters. Advertisements in Hebrew had been copied, and a glorious mess has been made of them. The writer did not only not know Hebrew but English, and his thoughts were quite incoherent. One phase in particular was clearly intended to inflame the Gentiles against the Jews.

He knew a good deal of the Jewish teaching, and he knew that the Jews had never made any attempt to annex the Almighty to themselves; they preferred to leave that to racialism gone mad.

He was satisfied the internal evidence was overwhelmingly in favor of the supposition the document was an impudent and malicious forgery.

EXPOSES CRUDE FORGERY

The document could not be the product of an educated man, Jew or Gentile. The same was true of the other documents produced. They were an attempt to poison the minds of gullible people, but Satan was particularly ill-advised when he selected for the job such an incompetent man. Any man who knew Hebrew would come inevitably to the same conclusion.

Inch: Why are you so sympathetic to Jewry?

Professor Dingemans: I am sympathetic to all nations, and I am sympathetic to Jewry because my Lord and Saviour was a Jew, but I am not prejudiced in favor of the Jews.

Professor Dingemans said that there was no Jewish blood in his veins or in his family. Cross-examined on Communism, he said that the originators were both Jews and Gentiles. He had always found that anti-Semites were against the Biblical God.

Professor Dingemans insisted the document was the product of a disordered mind. “I believe it to be a deliberate malicious forgery,” he said.

IGNORANT MIND BEHIND DOCUMENT

Von Moltke: Can you forge something that is non-existent?

Professor Dingemans: If I am an enemy of a particular race I can easily write stuff to vilify that race and attempt to create the impression that the statement which I made emanates from the people whom I wish to vilify. This document pretends to be something it is not. It pretends to be utterances from a synagogue written by a learned Jew, and I maintain that if it ever came from the synagogue it was put there by the person who wrote it, and he was not a learned Jew, nor was he a learned Gentile.

Von Moltke: Do you believe that a man who does not do as Christ and His apostles did is acting wrongly?

Professor Dingemans: Let me say this of an organization that pretends to be a Christian organization: “He that hates his brother walks in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth.”

Von Moltke objected to this reply.

The Judge – President: You brought it on yourself.