“I’ll see to it, notwithstanding all this, that you shall never speak again from any platform in New York, you dirty Englishman!”
Dr. Carter called the attention of the committee to the hatred and malignity expressed in the face, attitude and words of the enraged rabbi, and said he did not know whether it was a threat against his life, his pastorate, or his position as lecturer for the New York Board of Education.
The term “dirty” is rather an unusual one to apply to a race that has so long astonished Semitic countries by its insistence on its “bawth.” That is to say, the accuracy of Rabbi Levy’s description would draw about the same degree as would an appraisal of his gentlemanliness.
There was, fortunately, one other non-Jew present, namely, Ernest L. Crandall, supervisor of lectures, who was American enough to enter the fray. He addressed the hysterical little rabbi:
“I never have seen nor heard such bitterness and hatred expressed by any human being toward another as you have manifested here. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, and if I hear another word from you along such lines, I will have you thrown out!”
The future of Mr. Crandall should be worth watching. If he is apologetic for his principles, they will “get” him. If not, he may be the instrument of “getting” some things that are wrong with New York.
At any rate, Mr. Crandall acquitted Dr. Carter, and the Jews went out muttering.
It is rather an unusual and noteworthy fact, the acquittal of a man against whom the Jews had moved the charge and against whom the secretary of the Board of Jewish Ministers had uttered the aforesaid threat.