Seventy-five-day workhouse terms were meted out today to Ralph Ninfo, 29-year-old son of an American Labor Party member of the City Council, and Joseph Leveque, 49, on disorderly conduct charges arising from soaphox speeches urging violence against Jews. They said they planned to continue a hunger strike which they launched in jail last week.
Magistrate Curran, in sentencing the pair, said: “This country is dedicated to freedom of speech, freedom of religion and of the press, but the proper boundaries can be exceeded. Now with the world on fire, it is not safe to say some things. The people who call themselves the Christian Front and the Christian Mobilizers are dragging Christianity through the dust. They do not speak for Christianity.”
Councilman Salvatore Ninfo has disavowed his son’s activities, declaring he would like to see the youth spend the rest of his life in jail. Yesterday the Bronx County Advisory Committee of the American Labor Party adopted a resolution reaffirming faith in Ninfo’s devotion to civil and religious liberty and condemning the fomenting of bigotry and intolerance.
“Some parents mourn their children when they lose them,” Ninfo said at the meeting. “Others mourn them while they are still alive. My wife and I have the great misfortune to be in the latter category.”
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.
