To the Editor, Jewish Daily Bulletin:
Congratulations for your outspoken article by B. Smolar contained in your March 13 issue with reference to the question whether Father Coughlin is an anti-Semite.
For me this question has been answered long ago and for the very reasons stated in your article. However, I have spoken to a great number of Jews on this question and it is surprising to find a great many who do not only approve of him but actually give him financial support. Others insist on the sha-sha attitude.
It is distressing to find people so gullible as not to see through this “friend” of the Jews, who by uttering falsehoods in cleverly couched words and by innuendos, makes war upon them.
I was glad to see this question boldly put. The sooner we know the real Father Coughlin, the better it will be for us.
Sidney Finkel.
Newark, N. J.
DISAGREES ON STRACHEY
To the Editor, Jewish Daily Bulletin:
Mr. Smolar again has taken a regrettable attitude with reference to the activities of the rabbis. He condemns the rabbi of Glencoe, Ill., Temple for having invited Evelyn John St. Loe Strachey to speak under the auspices of its forum. Mr. Smolar has a decided anti-Rabbinical slant which has evidenced itself on numerous occasions in the columns of the Jewish Daily Bulletin. I trust he will endeavor to rid himself of it.
Within the past few years both the synagogues and the Jewish Community Centers have invited outstanding Gentile speakers to present their views on themes of sociological interest. This practice may seem in these days of heresy-hunting to be dangerous to Jewish life, but neither Mr. Smolar nor others should be led into hysteria because Mr. Strachey is threatened with deportation. Surely our definition of religion in Judaism should not be so circumscribed that we eliminate from pulpits and forums a discussion of vital controversial themes. Sometimes rabbis and synagogue laymen may make mistakes of judgment, but there is no mistake in inviting Gentiles of prominence to consider the great issues of the times.
On Wednesday evening, March 13, Mr. Strachey and Mr. Agardebated in the Temple at Cleveland. We Jews pride ourselves on the scope of liberalism in the synagogue and the Jewish Center. We have also boasted of Jewish intellectual curiosity, and the desire of Jews to hear the best presentation of conflicting opinions and viewpoints from the lips of their leading champions. Mr. Smolar’s comments play directly into the hands of timid laymen who will erroneously seize upon the Strachey episode to institute censorship with reference to speakers and issues in synagogues and Jewish Centers. Jews abhor censorship, for they know that once suppression of opinion begins, the Jewish people as a whole will be victimized. Rabbis and laymen who know the Prophets of Israel and the vexatious subjects they discussed are not averse to hearing contemporary controversialists present their views under the auspices of synagogue or center.
When Mr. Smolar says that Communism, Capitalism and Liberalism have “nothing to do with Jews,” he is emulating, I fear, the proverbial ostrich.
Rabbi Louis I. Newman,
Congregation Rodeph Sholom.
New York City.
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