The Washington times., 1930-01-04
JAIL s GE 7
!. FEWER
JEWS

Of American Jewry, Rabbi Abram
Simon of the Washington Hebrew
Congregation last night branded
Municipal Judge Nathan Cayton's
allegations of a so-called Jewish
crime wave as without reference
to statistics or facts"
, DR.. Simon spoke from the
pulpit of the Eighth Street
Temple at the regular Friday
night services as rejoinder to
the address made by Judge Cayton
last Friday night from the pulpit
of the Sixth Street Synagogue.
DR.. Simon severely castigated
the Municipal Court Judge, as
a member of the Jewish faith;
for making charges as scathing
and condemnatory as any ever
uttered by a Ku Klux Klan
spokesman. He cited figures to
show that not only was Jewish
Crime Wave" a Pigment Of the
imagination but that lawlessness
was rather on the wane among
the Jewish population.
Rabbi Simon said in part:
mo respect of mine for him
can withhold me from calling
Judge Cayton, the Jew, before
the bar of American public opin-
Ion for his unSeemly, gratuitouS,
untrue, and cruel condemnation
Of his people and religion, and
yours and mine. Had the ad-
dress not appeared in the press,
its contents would have been,
nevertheless, censurable; but being
stepped in the embalming fluid
OF printers ink, where it will
remain in cold type like skeleton
skull to haunt us. it becomes
thousand times more cenSurable.
Had the address been delivered
by a non-Jew, one might have
said, We'll, what can you
.expect?"
Speech UnrighteOus
mo article from the Dearborn
Independent has been as scath-
ing and condemnatory of Israel,
and no Ku Klux orator has been
more unrighteous than our friend,
the judge. When one of our own
household outdoes the Dearborn
Independent and prints poison
to become anti-Semitic meat, what
Self-respecting Jew can withhold
his righteous indignation?
Judge Cayton, desiring to
show that all was not we'll in
Israel in America, has written
an indictment which consigns his
people to the gutter of undeSir-
ability. If the Congressional
Committee on immigration, tax
ing his statement at it's full
value. introduce legislation to
tighten the screws upon the en-
trance of immigrants to our
country from east European
lands, the judge can rejoice in
his final triumph of reforming
and Maccabean zeal
Find Crime Wave
almost over night we seem
to have produced far more than
Dur share of criminals of every
class and description, and today
we wake up to find the Jewish
crime wave like an unwanted
child on our doorstep, an awful,
shameful reality"
Several questions rise to our
lips. What is our share of
criminality? How much are we
allowed to produce before we
can be accused of participating
in this crime wave? His shock.
ing and brutal charge has no
reference to statistics or facts
What is crime wave? No
criminologist or sociologist of re-
pute ever speaks of a crime wave.
Such an unusual volume of anti
social behavior is now, we are
told, overwhelming our country,
and choking the courts and
prisons, and juStifying the
appointment of crime commits
sion to make thorough study
of its origin and movement, and
to recommend adequate measures
to stem it's tide. Such a picture
of increasing lawleSsness, what
ever its causes and manifesto.
tions, strikes at the very heart
of our Republic, and may well
give us pause.
II understand that this is an
American crime wave, born out
of conditions in our essentially
American life, aggravated by in.
creasing types of legislation and
regulation, and a thousand.fold
"thou shalt nots." I understand
that it is increasing according
to density of population. I under.
stand that the coming of the
automobile has given birth to the
traffic courts. and thousands of
violators of traffic rules are now
called. criminals
Knows Other Crime Waves
I have known of epidemics OF
crime due to unemployment.
suicidal suggeStiveneSs and in.
tense heat, but l have not known
that there was an epidemic of
this kind breaking out, more or
less uniformly all over the land,
which might be denominated
Jewish I have nowhere heard
that any one had the hardihood
or the coldneSS to speak of a
Catholic or a Protestant crime
wave. but I have lived to know
a young Jew, stepping out Of his
position on a municipal bench, to
act as a lay preacher in a pulpit.
discovering what he now has