Issue of the antisemitic American weekly Social Justice, edited by American Catholic priest Father Charles Coughlin, accusing the Jews of orchestrating efforts to shut down the paper. Headline of the issue: “Jews Plot to Ban Social Justice” – March 30, 1942 – approximately one month before the U.S. government ordered its permanent closure due to its antisemitic content.
At the opening of the issue (p. 3), a formal notice is reproduced from the Jewish Survey newspaper, in which “the Jews” call for the immediate halt of Social Justice’s distribution. They accuse the weekly of publishing articles in support of Nazi Germany and of serving as “the mouthpiece of the Fifth Column in the United States, ” citing a series of overtly pro-Nazi publications. On the following page appears the editorial response to the Jewish demand. The editors claim it to be a baseless smear campaign, accusing the Jews of using old tactics for their own self-interest and asserting that the “Communist Jewish conspiracy” would not succeed. The denial did not prevent the paper from including, in this very issue (on the last page), a blatantly antisemitic article titled “And They Killed Christ, ” which recounts the story of Jesus and the Jews as portrayed in the New Testament. It claims that the motives of the Jews who executed him—after failing to defeat him with argument—mirror those of the “bullies” now trying to suppress the truth through violent means: “This encounter between the Messiah and the Pharisees ended with the latter taking up stones to throw at Him. It has always been so. The enemies of Christ first resort to the devilish tactics of slander, and then to the crushing stone or the sharp dagger to enforce their argument.” The article then makes a thinly veiled reference to the current Jewish campaign to shut down the paper: “It has always been so, and it always will be.”
The weekly Social Justice was founded in 1936 by American Catholic priest Father Charles Coughlin. The newspaper reflected an ideological line that ranged from socially conservative populism to blatant antisemitism. In the early 1930s, Coughlin became known as a supporter of economic reforms aimed at protecting the common man during the Great Depression. He attacked big banks and “greedy capitalism, ” called for the nationalization of the banking system, and promoted the principles of social justice based on Catholic social teaching (Social Doctrine of the Church). Gradually—especially after 1936—Social Justice began to advance conspiratorial and ultranationalist ideas, including the publication of numerous antisemitic texts, such as extensive excerpts from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The newspaper blamed Jews for controlling banks, the media, and for creating communism. On December 5, 1938, the paper published an article by Coughlin containing passages copied almost word for word from a speech by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, in which Jews and communists were viciously attacked. Following the events of Kristallnacht in November 1938, Coughlin claimed that Nazi violence against Jews was a reaction to Jewish persecution of Christians. The newspaper showed sympathy for fascist ideas in Europe and, from time to time, expressed support for Nazi Germany. With the outbreak of World War II, Coughlin harshly criticized President Roosevelt’s policies and his alliance with the Soviet Union, advocating a policy of non-intervention in the European war while claiming it served the interests of “international Jewry.” These statements provoked public outrage, and in the early 1940s, following increasing criticism and condemnation from the Catholic Church, the Archbishop of Detroit ordered Coughlin to cease his political activity. Shortly thereafter, under pressure from the Roosevelt administration, the U.S. government intervened to halt the paper’s antisemitic propaganda. In May 1942, its second-class mailing permit was revoked—effectively crippling its national distribution and leading to its closure. The publication ceased shortly afterward, and Coughlin withdrew from public life, returning to focus solely on religious affairs.
Complete issue. 16 pages. Very good condition.
