Dr. Andhil Fineberg, consultant to the American Jewish Committee on community relations, is one of three clergymen whose views on Communism were published today in a staff report of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The Rev. Dr. Daniel A. Poling and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen were the other two clergymen whose opinions were solicited by the House unit.
Dr. Fineberg, who reviewed for the committee’s staff his record of opposition to Communism since 1918, characterized Communism as a view of life based on materialism and collective society in contradistinction to “Judaeo-Christian concepts” and their emphasis on the individual. He said that ruling out “the existence of a deity and of man’s responsibility to that Higher Power” the Communists have no concept of responsibility to a Divine Judge, as do the Jews.
Noting that the property right is completely limited under Communism, Dr. Fineberg held that therefore “there ceases to be the kind of personal responsibility necessary for a genuinely religious life, which must be one of owning, of giving and of sharing, with considerable opportunity for voluntary conduct.”
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.
