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CANADIAN JEWISH REVIEW
APRIL 13, 1951
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Passover, with its great words, freedom, liberty, and deliverance from bondage, was never more to the point on this continent than it is at the present time when democracy is being placed in Jeopardy through undue restrictions on basic rights of thought and expression, for this is the era that Huey Long, the late ruler of the State of Louisiana, who was assassinated, predicted. He said: "When Fascism comes to America it will come in the guise of patriotism." Now. today and this minute, unscrupulous demagogues are making their way into power under the guise of protecting the state from Communism while they themselves destroy civil liberties by placing a premium on conformity and a penalty on any viewpoint which differs from theirs.
The result of their activities has been to create an oppressive climate of fear with its accompaniment of hysteria and suspicion. Such an atmosphere does not make it any easier to root out subversive elements but it does make it easier to intimidate liberal and progressive democratic elements by tarring them with the brush of Communism. That it should not be necessary to shackle individual freedom in order to catch subversives was shown by President Truman in his fruitless message to Congress, asking for moderate measures against them and warning Congress that more harm than good could come out of extreme legislation. What he meant partly was that in the legitimate effort to safeguard the internal security of the country from Communist espionage and sabotage, care should be taken not to limit the personal freedoms that make up democracy.
The greatest threat to democracy, even taking into consideration the threat that lies in subversion for Soviet expansionist policies, is the threat that resides in fear. Those who are creating a condition of f*ar deliberately are also subversives, Fascist subversives. What they want is to instil a general fear of exercising the basic right to differ, the right to criticise, through which democracy exists and gets its strength. What they want to do is to suffocate the spirit of freedom which keeps democracy alive. When they offer to save their country from the Communist menace at such drastic cost as the robbery of civil liberties from citizens, they ouqht to be labelled for what they really are and that is domestic Nazis. What they really want is to be the ones who do the enslaving and who become the taskmasters when distrust and dissension will have finally destroyed national unity.
Among those who conduct the witch-hunts that can ruin individuals simply by calling their loyalty into question are those who were once isolationist toward Hitler, advocating neutrality; and interventionist toward Stalin; and were and are anti-Semitic toward the Jews. Once they advanced anti-Semitism to help them put over "America First". Now they are tying it in with Communism to help them establish their power behind the smoke-screen of patriotism.
One of the dangers of their propaganda rests in their encouragement to the people to regard democracy as a negative concept, as something against Communism, Instead of as a positive concept, as something that stands for a way of life that is motivated by ideals of freedom and liberty and deserves to be guarded and defended carefully in daily living. Democracy can not be maintained and retained merely by halting something else. Living democracy, and not Just talking it, is the surest safeguard of liberty and there is no cheaper price. There has been an appalling deterioration in the public attitude toward the defense of civil liberties and unless this attitude can be restored to health there will be a loss of basic rights that can happen faster than liberty can ever be rewon once it is lost.
When liberty fails to be appreciated for what it is worth, a complacent people is guilty of the sin of indifference. The lesson of Passover is that freedom is not simply non-slavery. When the Israelites went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, that was merely the beginning. They still had to go on to Mount Sinai to accept responsibility for furthering principles of human dignity. They were free for a purpose, the acceptance of a civiliied code for the realization of ideals in humaneness. As escapees they were only a throng from which slavery was absent.
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to develop. For three thousand years they have been observing Passover as a memorial to the Exodus according to the Biblical commandment: "On that day thou shalt tell the story to thy son, saying, This is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt." But the purpose of this memorial is
not just to look backward and exclaim in wonder. It is to look forward in an active and vigilant struggle, no matter how hard, to keep freedom alive for purposes of self-realization.
This smug aqe has sinned in its apathy. Passover is a reminder that freedom can never be considered as having been won for all time. Bringing benefits in development that nothing else can bring, liberty can be kept alive only by unending refusal to compromise and the courage to oppose those forces which will always try to waylay it.
CANADIAN JEWISH REVIEW
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George W. Cohen, Publiiktr
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The Israelites were brought out of Egypt to begin to be free APRIL 13, 1951
etoepprw* of what you fay and �otU d^fond to th* doatk your right to My it. � Vohaire to Helvetins.
. VOL. XXXm, No. 28
