[Avodah] Rav Schwab on Chillul Hashem

[Prof. Levine via Avodah]

The following if from  Rav Schwab on Chumash

More than anything, Rav Schwab feared the possibility of making a 
chillul Hashem. He never used the title Rabbi in his bank records or 
on his checks, out of concern, as he told me, that if, G-d forbid, a 
check would bounce, "Rabbi" would add to the chillul Hashem .

Many years ago, a shameful scandal erupted in the Jewish community, 
centering around a Jewish businessman who was put on trial for 
embezzlement. At that time, influential members of the embezzler's 
community approached the Rav with a plea that he do what he can to 
saw the man from going to prison. Rav Schwab became extremely 
agitated, and he pointed out to the petitioners that the man's 
behavior, which was so widely publicized in the media, caused a 
tremendous chillul Hashem, and that the man had became a virtual 
rodef, a threat to the lives of Klal Yisrael.

He told the visitors outright that the embezzler deserved to sit in 
prison for a long time. He pleaded with them to give the embezzler a 
message - that the man should shave off his beard and take off his 
yarmulke when appearing in court, because by displaying these signs 
of his religious affiliation, he would be making a new chillul Hashem 
every day on the evening TV news, and would be a living disgrace for 
the Jewish People.

Rav Schwab wrote extensively on this topic of chillul Hashem.

         If one steals from a non-Jew, swears falsely and dies, his 
death is no atonement 10)....  Let us repeat. The profaners and the 
desecrators give us all a rotten         name, aiding and abetting 
our many adversaries and antagonizing our few friends. Therefore, no 
whitewashing, no condoning, no apologizing on behalf of 
the      desecrators. Let us make it clear that anyone who besmirches 
the Sacred Name ceases to be our friend. He has unwittingly defected 
from our ranks and has        joined our antagonists, to make us all 
suffer in his wake. And - noblesse oblige - the more prominent a man 
has become in Orthodox Jewish circles, the more     obligated he must 
feel to observe the most painstaking scrupulousness in his dealings 
with the outside world.

  Rav Shimon Schwab, quoted in Selected Writings (CIS Publishers, 1988)

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