UJA Official Criticizes Aclu Lawyer for Giving Neo-nazis Legal Aid

The United Jewish Appeal chairman here has criticized a Jewish lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union for “masochistic tendencies” in backing the right of a neo-Nazi group to hold a rally here. The UJA leader, Nathan Pearlman, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that he had had “a rather hitter argument” on the issue with the ACLU lawyer, Jesse Moskowitz.

There must be “limits” to the Constitutional guarantee of free speech so as not to allow “murderers, rapists and torturers” to make use of it, Pearlman told the JTA. He said the rightist group in question, the National Renaissance Party, was composed of “professed Nazis,” and said that “vicious elements of that type” were not entitled to First Amendment protection. Pearlman would not elaborate in a telephone interview initiated by the JTA in New York.

ACLU CHALLENGES POLICE BAR

The ACLU here is preparing a Superior Court challenge to a police decision not to let the Renaissance group rally in Journal Square May 27. “They’re entitled to a permit” on Constitutional grounds, Moskowitz told the JTA. He stressed that the party is not an ACLU client and that he has never met and does not intend to meet its national director, James H. Madole.

Police director Frederick W. Stevens denied the NRP application because “There are no compelling reasons for approval.” He said the city code permitted assemblies at four other locations but not Journal Square, which he called “a very busy area,” especially during “one of the busiest shopping times of the year.” Such permission, he said, “would require manpower and expense which we simply cannot afford to devote to one group,” as it would “require that other citizens be deprived of police protection.” At the last rally of the NRP in Sept. police had to set up cordons to prevent a possible confrontation sparked by listeners who felt insulted by the speeches.