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U.S. Must Root out Intolerance, J.e. Hoover Tells B’nai B’rith

May 14, 1940
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Denunciation of anti-Semitic and subversive elements and praise of the B’nai B’rith’s Americanism program and character-building agencies such as the Hillel Foundation and Aleph Zadik Aleph were voiced here last night by Director J. Edgar Hoover of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, speaking at a banquet featuring the 88th annual convention of B’nai B’rith District 1, which includes 143 lodges in Canada, New York and New England.

With more than 2,000 delegates and guests listening, Hoover blasted those we use the Constitution as a part of their “international confidence games” under which they may hide while seeking “to rob us of our American heritage.”

Hoover said: “This great land of ours is large enough for all creeds and races but it is not large enough for intolerance, for the goose-stepping bondsmen or the destruction scheming Communist. It is only large enough for those whose proud boast and privilege is that American stands as a sanctuary where the voices or religious and racial bigotry are absent.”

Governor L. Everett Saltonstall paid tribute to B’nai B’rith as a movement which “unites men and women in the noble cause of humanity and democracy.” Attorney Harry J. Greenblatt, Boston, was elected president of the district to succeed Harry B. Epstein, New York.

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