New Jersey state investigators opened a formal investigation today into charges that an ultra-Conservative element in the New Jersey Young Republicans sponsored alleged anti-Semitic, racist and extremist activities.
The probe was launched by State Attorney General Arthur J. Sills and was accompanied by fresh charges against the “Rat Finks,” as members of the faction call themselves, by State Senator Nelson F. Stamler, an independent Republican. Sen. Stamler, who had earlier aired a charge that the faction had sung an anti-Semitic song at state and national Young Republican conventions last summer, accused the faction of systematically discouraging Jews and Negroes from joining the Young Republicans. Mr. Mills said that the reported singing of such songs might constitute “discriminatory proceedings” in violation of state civil rights laws.
National and state Republican party chairmen also took action today. They ordered ouster of the Rat Finks who allegedly took part in the “sing-alongs” at the state Young Republican convention last May and at a national convention last June. Sen. Stamler had asserted that the anti-Semitic and racist songs were published in a seven-page song sheet used in the “sing-alongs.”
Sen. Stamler said that he knew of a number of Jews who had applied for membership in Young Republican county units and who had been “harassed” by Rat Fink adherents until they stopped coming to meetings. Mr. Stamler, the only Jewish Republican in the New Jersey Legislature, said one Rat Fink technique was to subject Jewish applicants to hostile questioning, and then to seat them apart from the membership.
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.
