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Non-sectarian Anti-nazi Group Formed to Combat Spread of Propaganda

December 27, 1933
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A new organization has been formed by the American League for the Defense of Jewish Rights which will have as its purpose to launch a campaign against the spread of Nazi propaganda in this country as well as to conduct the boycott, according to Samuel Untermyer, president of both organizations. The new group will be known as the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights.

“The invasion and flooding of our country by Nazi anti-Semitic, seditious propaganda,” Mr. Untermyer stated, “is contrary to American institutions and must be met, as must also the recent attempts of the Nazi regime to destroy Catholic and Protestant churches and to substitute in their place the ‘German Church’ which involves the scrapping of the Old Testament and parts of the New Testament and the proposed destruction of the franchise to women irrespective of race or creed. All this, added to the continuing persecution of the Jewish people in Germany, has imposed upon us greatly added responsibilities. In order to accurately represent these enlarged activities, which have the whole-hearted cooperation of many outstanding Americans, Jews and non-Jews, the name of the League has been changed to the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights.”

Mr. Untermyer announced that the reorganized body will continue to concentrate upon the boycott, which he characterized as “the only effective weapon in defense of basic human rights and for the preservation of democratic institutions, religious freedom and the inalienable rights of man against medieval barbarism, which has seized control of Germany, throttled its free institutions and is threatening the peace and freedom of the world.”

Mr. Untermyer is president of the reorganized League. Other officers are, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver of Cleveland, first vice-president; Victor J. Dowling, former Presiding Justice of the Appelate Division, First Department; Arthur S. Tompkins, Associate Justice of the Appelate Division; James W. Gerard, former Ambassador to Germany; Dr. A. Coralnik, associate editor of The Day, vice-presidents; J. David Stern, publisher of The New York Evening Post, national treasurer; Louis Myers, acting treasurer and Ezekiel Rabinowitz, secretary.

The following were elected members of the Board of Directors: Abraham Cahan; Dr. A. Coralnik, Jacob Fishman, Dr. B. Dubovsky, J. George Fredman, Mrs. Mark Harris, Siegfried F. Hartman, Dr. John Haynes Holmes, Frank P. Walsh, Rev. Edward L. Hunt, Allie S. Freed, E. N. Kleinbaum, Samuel Untermyer, Victor J. Dowling, James W. Gerard, Judge Arthur S. Tomkins, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, J. David Stern, Ezekiel Rabinowitz, and Louis Myers.

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