“Prejudice is an insult to the dignity of man, the child of God.  It is contagious and like a brush fire can burn down a whole civilization unless it is stamped out right at the start.”

Rabbi Olan begins his sermon of March 31, 1963 with a discussion of treating one’s enemy well, but goes on to discuss what happens when man is confronted with evil writ small, and allows it to grow into evil writ large.  He teaches us that we must recognize evil when it starts, and take up arms against it so it will not grow. 

He recounts the terrible story of the growth of Nazism in Europe, how man looked away, until the cost was tragically high.

“He forgot the warning of the Psalmist:  ‘Sin croucheth at the door.’”

*Written by Elizabeth Olan Hirsch*

(Rabbi Olan quotes Proverbs 24 and 25, Romans 12, Matthew 5:44, Deuteronomy 25:17, Genesis 4:17 and Israel Luepschuetz.)