The July 20 issue of the Kings County News appeared Friday with a leading article in which it was reported candidates for Democratic leadership for the Second Assembly District have begun setting forth their records of tolerance toward Jews as campaign planks.
According to the article: “At a meeting of the Brighton Beach Democratic Captains Organization on Wednesday night, Assemblyman Albert D. Schanzer, Harry L. Raffel. Clerk of the Supreme Court, and Ben Freedman, Deputy Internal. Revenue Collector, three of Thomas G. Ryan’s principals, publicly assailed the ‘snipers’ in the opposition and declared that any attempt on the part of the Marcus group to characterize their leader as intolerant was ‘an outrageous lie.”
The article says this of Ryan: “Ryan asserted that his associates did not inform him of their intention to address the Brighton meeting, and added that he personally wished to keep the racial issue out of the fight and never started it. He challegned any one to compare his record of tolerance with theirs, and pointed as evidence of an unprejudiced mind to his charitable activities and the fact that his last two appointments went to Jews.”
Of Marcus, the article says: “Bernard Marcus, the chief opponent of the present leader, laid the responsibility for bringing the racial issue into the contest at the door of the Ryan elements and heatedly asserted that at no time had he or his associates ever made capital of race and never would.
“‘Many of my confederates are not of my faith,’ Marcus said, ‘My attitude and associations are definitely liberal and non-religious. The conduct of my opponents is a despicable attempt to ward off the powerful opposition they see impending against their incompetent leadership. It is deplorable that members of my own race should stoop to such tactics.'”
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.
