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Description
In response to the spread of organized anti-Semitism in the United States during the 1930s, leaders of Los Angeles' Jewish community formed a special defense organization known as the Los Angeles Jewish Community Committee. The committee later changed its name to the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee. The collection documents the committee's efforts to combat prejudice and educate the public through cooperation with both Jewish and non-Jewish groups, from its formation in 1933 through the early 1990s. "Happy New Year" reads the banner across the top of Part 1 of this mock-advertisement for wartime goods (see item CRCms138a in this collection). The reader is offered, among other things, a sale price on gas masks; loans for bomb-proof gardens; and a free food decontaminator with every one-dollar purchase. These curious offers are explained here in Part 2 of the ad. The entire ad was the work of the Hollywood League for Democratic Action (formerly the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League). Their goal was to solicit donations in support of their central cause: educating Americans to the dangers of fascism, particularly the type being espoused at the time in Nazi Germany. Part 2 of the ad states: "This may be our last new year's message to you unless you help...! For next year, these articles of war may be for sale here as they are in London, Berlin, Paris." It warns: "Those who seek to destroy are armed with millions." It pleads: "GIVE -- to defend democracy." 13 x 8.75 in.
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