Disavowal of anti-Jewish sentiments and regret for the recent publication of the article on the Jews in Germany, appearing in the magazine Time, to which exception was taken by Bernard G. Richards, executive director of the American Jewish Congress, has been made by the editor of Time. In a letter addressed to Mr. Richards, the editor, Henry R. Luce, writes as follows:
“The main point seems to assure our Jewish friends that Time has absolutely no anti-Jewish prejudices, and that we will do our best to avoid any future suggestion of an anti-Jewish attitude. This particular story I deeply regret. The writer thereof has been duly admonished for his misguided zeal in attempting to make his story vivid. Far from condoning the savage Hitler outbursts, Time views them with alarm; for about the only policy we have is to be fair and to hold a balance between fairness and unfairness in public characters.”
The story in question spoke with apparent glee of “Jewess after rich Jewess with her plump black-eyed brood” scuttling out of Germany and “filling trains de luxe with wails and confusion,” as a result of the recent victory of the Hitlerites in the German elections. The writer also referred to alleged offers of “Jew-Cash” to the fund of the “Brown-Shirt” Party in an attempt to appease the wrath of “swaggering Hitlerites.”
“Humor is a very fine element in journalism,” declared Mr. Richards in his rebuke to Time, “but when it takes the form of ill-concealed glee at the menacing forces of reaction which confront certain parts of the German population, a liberal-minded publication like your own comes dangerously close to the bigoted attitude of the agitators whom it describes.”
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.
