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THE SOUTHERN ISRAHJTE
Friday, S*pt. 22, 1967
As We Were Saying
By ROBERT E. SEGAL
t (A Seven Arte Feature)
The day before George Lincoln
.Rockwell was assassinated, the
Urban Coalition was born.
Rockwell’s death wrote a vio
lent finish to an American aber
ration; the Urban Coalition’s
birth marked the beginning of a
solid effort to modify conditions
and, hopefully, solve the kind of
problems that had given a flam
boyant minor league bigot like
Rockwell his chance to strut.
A great deal will be said and
written about the Urban Coalition
in the days ahead. Rockwell will
soon acquire only a footnote’s
listing in history. But since he
frightened and bothered a size
able sector of the Jewish com
munity so intensely, we need to
think about him a bit before that
footnote is written.
Rockwell flashed his own sig
nal for the solution he presented
to the Jewish community when,
in I960, he wrote in his Amer
ican Nazi Party paper:
“Many a steel company . . .
knows the value of using a
pretty girl in its advertising
to get the attention of the
audience, although the pret
ty girl has little to do with
the steel. Our (American
Nazi) problem was to gain
Attention First because you
can’t convince anybody of
your arguments if you can-
Here’s a complete list of
all Dodge dealers who will
sell for less than Lenox
Dodge:
(Get the message?)
LENOX
DODGE
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261-5130
not first get them to listen,
and you can’t get them to
listen when you have no
money at all, no press, no
organization or publication
to compete even a little bit
with the monstrous engines
of publicity available to the
Jews and their radical ac
complices.”
This exhibitionist who lived to
be 49, had a limited flair for ad
vertising himself and an unlim
ited supply of cheek and (we
must be honest and admit it) cou
rage in the taoe of danger. What
he didn’t have to suoceed as a
leader of a fascist cadre in free
America was stated handsomely
by some of the most effective
students of Nazism; hut many
good people wouldn’t listen.
William Shirer gave the ingre
dients for sucoess in this sordid
field. To be a Hitler, he said,
took (1) a man on fire with na
tionalism, (2) forceful as a de
magogue, (3) skilled in organiz
ing, and (4) masterful in the use
of modern propaganda for evil
purposes. Rockwell thought he
had all these strengths; but he
ended up with no beer hall
putsches to his credit, a following
of hardly more than 100 ever, and
a couple of bullets in his body.
H. R. Trevor Roper, writing in
the New York Times in 1962
on ‘A Rockwell Cannot Be A
Hitler,” pointed but* that no Os
wald Mosley, no Colin Jordan,
no George Rockwell, would suc
ceed in an “inter-war period"
unless there were (1) economic
depression, (2) national resent
ment, (3) the failure of existing
institutions.
Our present prosperity may be
a mirage but it tastes good to
tnousands; national resentment
against our involvement in Viet
nam was not Rockwell’s cup of
tea; and our institutions are fair
ly robust—so the troublemaker
in Arlington, Va., fell far short
CT qualifications and the luck to
make it.
For the Jewish community
then, the debate over how to
handle Rockwell is closed by the
violenoe he courted. But before
the curtains are drawn, we should
think longer on what he, unwit
tingly, taught us.
He taught us that we shouldn’t
amputate a foot when we have
only a tack in our shoe. When
ever some among us insisted that
his abused right to speak be shut
off, we were not harming him at
all but we were downgrading
on institution best designed to
kill off demagogues.
He taught us to think like ma
ture men about establishing that
point beyond which Rockwell’s
demand for gcnocidal action
against Jews became, not just
our imagined danger, but Amer
ica’s actual danger.
He taught us, above all, that
a people who learned to weather
a McCarthy era of cowardice in
high places and calumny against
honorable men can certainly en
dure a Rockwell era of ghoulish
pranks and third-class goose
stepping.
Our problem is not to silence
the next Rockwell emerging; it
is to build the truly Great So
ciety.
Toronto Invalidates
An Anti-Bias Law
TORONTO (JTA) — Justice
Patrick Hartt of the Ontario
Supreme Court upheld a ruling
of a lower court that this city’s
ordinance against speeches in
city parks which incite race
hatred is invalid. The ruling af
firmed the acquittal of William
John Beattie, self-styled Nazi
leader, who is currently serving
a six-month jail sentence for
hanging swastika signs on the
homes of leading Jewish citizens
of Toronto.
The anti-incitement by-law,
enacted by the city, led to Beat
tie’s imprisonment, but Magis
trate Charles Opper had ruled
the measure illegal, and the rul
ing was appealed by the city
fathers to the higher court.
Core Director
Says His Group
Not Anti-Zion
NEW YORK (JTA)—The di
rector of the Congress of Racial
Equality confirmed reports that
he had formally dissociated him
self and CORE from a Black
Power resolution condemning
the “imperialist Zionist war” be
tween Israel and the Arab coun
tries. The resolution was recent
ly adopted at the National Con
ference for New Politics in
Chicago.
Floyd B. McKissick, the direc
tor, said he had attended the
Chicago meeting as an observer
and had not voted on any issues.
Most of the delegates were op
ponents of the Viet Nam war and
militant civil rights advocates,
including a strong bloc of Black
Power advocates.
In disclosing his position, Mr.
McKissick said CORE did not
oppose Zionism because it con
sidered Zionism a form of na
tionalism. “CORE supports na
tionalism” he said, “and is now
studying various national-state
theories. Thus CORE cannot sup
port a position against Zionism.”
Senators Back
Desalting Plan
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Fifty-
one members of the Senate are
co-sponsoring a resolution calling
for implementation of a $540,000,-
000 “Eisenhower plan” for nu
clear desalination to promote
peace in the Near East.
The resolution was drafted by
Senator Howard Baker, Tennes
see Republican. It was spon
sored by 32 Republican Senators
and 19 Democrats. Senator
Baker stated that Chairman J.
W. Fulbright of the Senate For
eign Relations Committee prom
ised that early hearings would be
held on the measure.
AJC Joins Protest
On Lottery Funds
CONCORD, N. H. (JTA)—The
American Jewish Congress join
ed the National Council of
Churches and the American Civil
Liberties Union in a memoran
dum to the New Hampshire Sup
reme Court criticizing a recently-
enacted State law which would
give to parochial schools part of
the revenue raised by the New
Hampshire sweepstakes.
The memorandum called the
measure, which went into effect
in July, “unprecedented” and
“plainly unconstitutional.” It was
submitted in response to an in
vitation of the State Supreme
Court. It called the law a “novel
and unprecedented departure”
from the principle of church-
state separation that “goes far
beyond any form of aid to reli
gious institutions that has re
ceived judicial approval.”
1968 Conference
For Reform Movement
LONDON (JTA)—The World
Union of Progressive Judaism—
the organization of the Reform
movement—announced here that
it will hold its 15th biennial, in
ternational conference in Jerusa
lem in 1968. The organization had
previously scheduled itself to
meet next year in Amsterdam.
Withdraw Petition on
Wearing: Yarmulka
TRENTON, N.J. (JTA) — A
petition calling on the State
Education Commissioner here to
issue a ruling permitting yar-
mulkas to be worn in New Jersey
public schools for religious rea
sons was withdrawn here by the
five Jewish organizations that
had filed the request.
A spokesman for the five or
ganizations indicated that a dis
agreement had developed among
the groups on the strategy and
tactics of handling the yarmulke
case. Pending further discussions
on procedure, it was felt that the
Indian Synagogue
Now 100 Years Old
POONE, India (WUP)—The
Jews of this town turned out en
masse recently to commemorate
the 100th anniversary of the
famous Ohel David Synagogue.
An outstanding architectural
landmark in India, it was built
by the late David Sassoon who is
buried in the Synagogue
grounds. Current chairman of
the Synagogue’s Board of Trus
tees is Albert Menashe.
petition to the State Education
Commissioner should be with
drawn.
HELD OVER BY DEMAND—
19th Week
A Man And A Woman
in color
Academy award winner . .
Best picture and screen play
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