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California Pastor Posts Mezuzah on His Door As Protest Against Nazi

December 31, 1964
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A Protestant pastor posted a mezuzah today on the door of his parsonage–a wartime method used in Denmark to protest Nazism–as a protest against the presence of an American Nazi party member in a home in suburban Glendale.

Rev. Robert Miller, pastor of the First Brethren Church of Glendale, acted because Nazi Ralph Forbes has rented a house in Glendale with the announced intention of using it as a Nazi center. Glendale officials shut off electricity to the house and the municipality filed charges against him in court accusing him of violating a city building ordinance forbidding the use of a private residence as a public meeting hall.

Rev. Miller said that George Rockwell, head of the Nazis, and his followers “have continually misused the word ‘Christian’ as if it meant the same as being an-Jewish or even anti-Jewish.” He said he was opposed to any violent action against the Nazi group but that he felt there was a need for “true Christians” to protest. He said he would form a group to picket the house.

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