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New York (State) Protestantism
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Roosevelt, Franklin Delano

File contains a draft of an undated (presumably spring 1943) letter to be sent to American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, written by Kenneth Leslie. The file addresses concerns raised by the Textbook Commission about a "most regretful anti-Semitic foot note" that appeared in the Roman Catholic version of the New Testament that was issued to all "Catholic personnel of the Army". The offending passage, that the Commission requested be removed from all editions, appeared on page 559: "the Jews are the Synagogues of Satan". The First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, had previously been an ardent admirer of Kenneth Leslie's work, giving invaluable endorsements to Leslie on several occasions.

Textbook Commission to Eliminate Anti-Semitic Statements in American Textbooks clippings and correspondence

File contains facsimiles of newspaper clippings related to Kenneth Leslie's "Textbook Commission to Eliminate Anti-Semitic Statements in American Textbooks", collected between 1943 and 1946. File includes facsimiles of articles from The Catholic News, Our Sunday Visitor, American Glass Review, The Portland Scribe, among others. File also includes a "Declaration of Principles of the Textbook Commission to Eliminate Anti-Semitic Statements in American Textbooks" broadside; facsimile of a letter sent by John Edgar Hoover to Ben Richardson (of The Protestant) dated December 27, 1945; facsimile correspondence between Richardson and Arthur Lourie of the American Zionist Emergency Council; a facsimile of a letter from L.M. Birkhead (National Director of Friends of Democracy Inc.) to Mrs. F.H. Gray (regarding The Protestant), a three-page letter by Jules Cohen of the Brooklyn Jewish Community Council on the subject of an "observers report on the 'Protestant' rally of March 21, 1946"; and facsimiles of an anti-Semitic poster from the German American Vocational League and an anti-Semitic advertisement for a Henry Ford publication.

Davis, Mary

File contains a typed letter unsigned by Kenneth Leslie, written on March 19, 1931 to be sent to Mary Davis of Summit, New Jersey. File addresses outlining an evening of Gaelic dance and music, organized by Kenneth and his first wife, Elizabeth Moir, mentioning the potential of his three young daughters assisting in the dancing. The goal of the program is to display the "instrumental music, song, and dance, expressive of the classic culture of Gaeldom. File also contains a facsimile of Leslie's letter.

Garber, Paul

File contains two letters written by Bishop Paul N. Garber (of Geneva, Switzerland), and one response from Kenneth Leslie, dated March and April 1946. The first letter, dated March 7, 1946, from Garber, informs Leslie of his meeting in Warsaw with Stefan Molski, a correspondent for Leslie's publication The Protestant, and discusses the current tenuous Polish political situation. The response from Leslie, dated April 11, 1946, inquires as to whether Bishop Garber would be willing contribute an article to The Protestant, and gauging Garber's interest in serving as an adviser of the publication's Editorial Board. Garber's response, dated April 17, 1946. affirms his interest in serving as an editorial adviser, but warns that he will also be "very busy" given his need to attend "four annual conferences [held] in rapid succession in Switzerland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Poland."

New York World-Telegram

File contains typed correspondence written, on The Protestant letterhead, by Kenneth Leslie on February 14, 1944, and sent to the editor of the New York World-Telegram. File addresses Leslie's request for print space to respond to articles previously submitted by a Mr. Woltman (February 7, 8, and 9, 1944 issues), and Woltman's "smear attack" assertion that "The Protestant, its Textbook Commission to Eliminate Anti-Semitic Statements in American Textbooks, and myself, as being 'anti-Jewish,' 'anti-Catholic' and unofficial apologists for Communism." Leslie differentiates between Woltman's assertion of Leslie's attacks on Catholicism, calling them rather "taking issue with the political activities of the Vatican and its emissaries". He responds to the "anti-Jewish" assertion stating that the attacks were on the American Jewish Committee "which does not represent the Jews of America". He also reasserts "The Protestant"'s policy of
attacking Fascism here and abroad, irrespective of whether its sponsorship be Protestant, Catholic or Jewish". He finishes by defending accusations of anti-Semitism levied against Pierre van Paassen, Johannes Steel, and Joseph Brainin (fellow editor of The Protestant), stating that "the accuser must be pitied for having exposed his ignorance--or malice--so flagrantly" by accusing "a man of the stature of Pierre van Paassen, whom the Jews in this country, in Europe and in Palestine have come to regard as their greatest champion, [of anti-Semitism]".

The Protestant Digest

Series contains copies of the The Protestant Digest, materials related to the Textbook Commission, as well as office ledgers, advertisements, and Protestant stationery.

Letter written by Kenneth Leslie regarding the threat posed by fascism and antisemitism in the United States

Item is a two-page typed letter written by Kenneth Leslie on December 17, 1942. The letter addresses the threat posed by the fascist movement and antisemitism in the United States, both at present during the war, as well as the threats posed "after the war is over", where "this Fascistic movement will let loose with its first barrage, to consist of a wave of terror against the Jew". The letter, which an accompanying index card suggests should be sent "first to Presidents of colleges and then to professors of education, philosophy, psychology, historical and sociological sciences", urges educators join the "Protestant Digest"-supported Textbook Commission to eliminate anti-Semitic statements in American textbooks as a means of warding off fascism and antisemitism "not in the name of any church but in the name of democracy".

Chicago Ministerial Action Committee

File contains typed correspondence dated November 22, 1946, about a resolution passed at a meeting of the Chicago Ministerial Action Committee of The Protestant, at a meeting on November 19, 1946, following questioning of Kenneth Leslie's leadership. The resolution states that "We [...] sincerely deprecate the action of those who have endangered our whole endeavor by placing your position of leadership in a false light, [and] unanimously go on record expressing our complete and sincere loyalty to you." File includes a list of the signatories of the resolution.

New York Times

File contains typed correspondence written by Kenneth Leslie on February 23, 1945, and sent "to the Editor of the New York Times". File addresses Leslie's request for print space to respond to a letter previously submitted by Michael Williams (February 22, 1945 issue), and his assertion that Leslie and The Protestant have made "at least one gravely erroneous historical statement". Williams alleged that The Protestant entertains "the notion that in 1929 the Holy See suddenly and in the most sinister alliance with the political and ideological powers of Fascism, Nazism and dictatorships resumed 'political activities' totally suspended since 1870, and apparently for the express purpose of supporting such regimes...', while Leslie responds stating that the notion The Protestant conveyed was to call attention to the "Papacy's abstention from 'overt political activity' between 1870 and 1929".

Kenneth Leslie's Protestant Digest and Textbook Commission letter book

File contains Kenneth Leslie's letter book from the early years of The Protestant Digest, and the Textbook Commission to Eliminate Anti-Semitic Statements in American Textbooks, dated 1938 to 1943. File contains full correspondence as well as snippets from Kenneth Leslie's letters, Protestant Digest documentation, favourable testimonials about The Protestant Digest, as well as Leslie's efforts to attract scholars to join the editorial board of The Protestant Digest.

The letter book is divided into the following sections:
- Textbook Commission: with a "general invitation to join the Textbook Commission to Eliminate Anti-Semitic Statements in American Textbooks as well as Leslie's letters to Richard E. Gutstadt, Samuel Radbill, Joseph Barth, E. George Payne, Chas. Feltman, Sol Tekulsky, Brigadier-General Chaplain William R. Arnold, St. Anthony Guild Press, the Confraternity of the Precious Blood, E.E. Wheeler, Louis Broido, and Abraham A. Neuman;

- Released Time: responding to critiques from the Editor of Commonweal, the editor of the Friends of the Public Schools of America, Harriet V. Postman, Simon Certner, Mrs. Yorke Allen, Mark Starr, and James King;

- Anti-Semitism: letters and support to Isaac Rosengarten, Marion B. Sulzberger, Joseph Gorelik, Dr Albert W. Palmer, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Hon. Fiorello LaGuardia, Senator James E. Mead, Margaret Lee Southard, Philip Slomovitz, Rabbi Jerome Unger, and Mrs. Louis L. Browne;

- Social Action and Negro: letters to the editor of the New York Post, John T. McManus, the Women's National Radio Committee, Dr Benjamin E. Mays, Donald West, Hon. Sumner Welles, Patrick Malin, Dr A. Clayton Powell Jr., Donald Young, Robert Searle, Bridget Clark, Mrs Franklin D. [Eleanor] Roosevelt, Sylvia Loomis, Annette Smith Lawrence, Mrs. Julius O. Adler, Harold Rosswell, Philip Murray, Chaim Weizmann, Meyer Weisgal, Samuel McCrea Cavert, Dr Adolf Meyer, Eugene R. Shippen, Attorney General Francis Biddle, and the text of a "statement for the special Negro issue of New Masses, October 1, 1942";

- The Protestant Digest, later The Protestant: with subheadings for Documents, Beginnings -- Motif -- Aim -- Purpose, Epigrams (to Nora Bateson, John L. Lewis, Edward T. Friendly, American League for Peace and Democracy, John Temple Graves II, Walter Winchell, Paul Vincent Carroll, Carl W. Shaver, Dr J.H. Rushbrook, Rev. J.T. Widner, Bishop Ralph A. Ward, Sara Graham Mullhall, Maurice Rosenblatt, Mrs. A. Goshawk, Hon. Henry A. Wallace, Cyrus S. Eaton, and Mrs. Leonard K. Elmhirst;

- Comments on The Protestant Digest, later The Protestant, Favorable: with comments from Eleanor Roosevelt, The Christian Register, Zions Herald, Social Action Digest, Reinhold Niebuhr, Dr. W.K. Wilson, Mrs. Andrew Gardner, Presbyterian Tribune, Joseph Fort Newton, Upton Sinclair, Edward Holton James, George N. Falconer, Edward T. Friendly, Nora Bateson, O.R. Thome, Miss Ada L. Snell, A.W. Heinle, Clifford J. Laube, I.C. Thorgaard, Ellis Huntington Dana, Hamish Hamilton, H.A. Crossley, Clarence E. Wilson, Carl W. Shaver, Walter C. Leck, Rabbi Joseph S. Shubow, P.L. Howe, Kay Smith, Robert C. Harder, M. Milton Talkin, Arthur Settel, Robert H. Ellis Jr., I.M. Sholkin, Fred Eastman, Florence L. Cox, Rev. Robert H. Eads, Stephen S. Wise, Angie Wynn, John Granberry, Samuel L. Hamilton, Leon Wolf Levy, W. Edgar Gregory, Guy Henson, R. Lloyd Pobst, Don MacDiarmid, D. Arthur Bowman, Harry C. Steinmetz, Lester L. Greenbaum, the New York Post, R.O. Johnson, Maria Halberstadt, Pierre vanPaasen, Louis Adamic, Sam G. Johnson, Laird T. Hites, Frank Mlakar, C. Oumansky, George R. Bryant, Robert Ulich, Mrs. A.B. Cross, Rev. Hurley Begun, Horace T. Houf, Frank D. Graham, Ivy Litvinoff, Rev. Alfred V. Bliss, Peter Kamitchis, Rev. Edward Morris, Gerald M. Meyer, William Bouck, R.. Dundon, Edwin McNeil Poteat, Stanley High, Ione Riggs, Bishop James Cannon Jr., Olive Anderson, Robert Whitaker Edward H. Redman, John A. Lee, John A. MacKay, Walter M. Kraus, Theodore D. Jervey, Neason Jones, Sidney A. Goodman, Mrs. A. Allyn, Marion Neville, Albert F. Gilmore, Richard J. Davis, and Ralph W. Wescott;

- Invitations to join the Board of Editorial Advisors, epigrams: with letters to Albert Einstein, Sherwood Eddy, Bishop Edward L. Parsons, George Bernard Shaw, Rt. Rev. Malcolm E. Peabody, Charles Evans Hughes, Rt. Rev. Benjamin, Ralph Barton Perry, and Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam;

- The Protestant Digest Associates, epigrams: with letters to Martha Gelhorn [sic], Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Helen Lynd, William Jay Schieffelin, Rev. Edward Morris, Ida Pellar, Judge Benjamin Shaleck, and Cyrus Eaton.