In a conspicuous front-page story, the current issue of the Brooklyn Tablet, a Catholic newspaper, bitterly attacks Aldermanic President Bernard S. Deutsch for saying that no group is persecuted or restricted in Mexico.
The Tablet quotes Deutsch as stating that “during my three weeks visit here I found no persecution of any class here.”
“Mr. Deutsch, it will be recalled,” the story says, ” was one of the most active opponents of the present government in Germany because it persecuted the Jewish people. He has denounced intolerance loudly and regularly, insisting upon liberty and fair play. It was not necessary for him even to visit Germany before rushing to the defense of liberty.
“Recently he went, ostensibly on a vacation tour, to Mexico. Arriving there, where Catholics have been subjected to the worst persecution in modern times—far worse than that accorded the Jews in Germany—Mr. Deutsch in a public address pronounced Mexico ‘forward looking.’
“The fact that Mexico has closed every Catholic school and charitable institution; seized hundreds of churches and expelled their occupants; permits only one priest for every 100,000 people, has arrested and jailed hundreds who sought to exercise the freedom of worship which every country but Russia tolerates; prohibits the wearing of the clerical collar; fosters the vilest type of legislation, including laws in the State of Tabasco which compel any priest to marry, and carries on a militant campaign to make atheists of every child, does not impress Mr. Deutsch.”
The Tablet stated that it has received a number of letters about Deutsch’s conduct which it will not print until he returns and is able to answer them.
In a letter to the Yonkers Sunday Record, Rabbi Emanuel J. Jack alludes to Deutsch as a “persecuted turned persecutor.”
“Wherever and whenever the despicable serpent of religious intolerance and persecution and oppression raises its ugly head,” the letter states, “it should be speedily crushed and grounded under heel by the combined efforts of all sincere lovers of justice and peace. Certainly anyone blessed with the divine title, Jew, should be among the first to fight against intolerance and should never be found among those who are creating and spreading persecution. For the persecuted to become a persecutor is not only disgusting but invites the wholehearted condemnation of all humans, regardless of creed or color.
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.
