Source: Expression
by Max Friedman
“In 1923, New York police entered Broadway’s Apollo Theater and shut down an English-language production of a popular Yiddish play, Sholem Asch’s Got fun nekome (‘God of Vengeance’). Officers arrested the entire cast and production team, including prominent First Amendment lawyer Harry Weinberger of Abrams v. United States fame. The raid led to a sprawling obscenity trial that sharply divided the New York Jewish community. Got fun nekome was supposedly ‘obscene’ because it portrayed a Jewish family that defied norms of gender and social status. … Some Jewish leaders at the time feared that the play’s portrayal of Jews would inflame antisemitic stereotypes. … let Sholem Asch’s words guide us now. The mere fact that a message could provoke ill will toward Jews does not justify stamping it out in the name of Jewish safety.” (07/23/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/censoring-with-a-vengeance-indecent