The state announced it intends to prove George A. Bright, now on trial in connection with the bombing of the synagogue here, “not only participated in the planning but that he was there at the time” the synagogue was dynamited.
That statement was made by Tom Luck, assistant prosecutor, as the trial moved into its third day. The other four accused will be tried later. Mr. Luck told the Superior Court that state prosecutors expected to show that the 31-year-old Bright was a member of a group who had violent anti-Semitic feelings and had formed an organization to create unrest.
A Baptist minister testified today that Bright called Temple Rabbi J. Rothschild “a Christ-killing Jew.” The Rev. William Arnold Smith of the Atlanta First Baptist Church told the court that Bright made the remark at his church at a meeting last May. The meeting, attended by about 1,200, was one of a series held to familiarize church members with the various other religions of the world. Rabbi Rothschild was speaker of the evening. Rev. Smith said Bright objected to the rabbi’s statement that the Nazis were responsible for 6,000,000 Jewish deaths.
Rev. Smith said Bright’s conduct created a disturbance. Therefore he later went to Bright and asked his purpose in stirring up trouble in the church. Rev. Smith quoted Bright as replying: “I object to you having a Christ-killing Jew speak at the church.”
Rabbi Rothschild, who appeared in court today as witness, testified that he spoke on Judaism at the Baptist Church May 28. He said Bright was in the audience and asked him to give the number of Jews in the world. He told Bright there were about thirteen million. Bright contended there were several million more. Rothschild said he commented that Hitler had killed 6,000,000 Jews in Europe and that Bright objected to that statement.
Defense attorney James Venable, in cross-examining the witness, said, “You don’t feel kindly toward Hitler for killing Jews.” Rabbi Rothschild replied he did not think any civilized person felt kindly about it.
(Speaking to an American Jewish Committee dinner in New York tonight, Senator elect Kenneth Keating said that his recent trip to three major Southern cities where bombings had occurred had convinced him that people in the South would react favorably to a Federal bill making it a Federal offense to dynamite public buildings. He said that he had established that there were 70 bombing incidents involving schools, churches, synagogues, Negro homes and businesses across the nation in the past two years.)
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.
