Anti‐Semitism

Anti‐Semitism. A term coined in Germany in 1879, “Anti‐Semitism” means hostility toward Jews. Rooted in Christian teachings, this antagonism dates back almost two thousand years. Assumptions about “Jewish” responsibility for the death of Jesus pervaded Christian theology well into the twentieth century. The worst manifestations of European anti‐Semitism occurred during crisis times when people blamed Jews for social ills. These malevolent ideas were based not only on theological beliefs but also on erroneous assumptions about Jewish religious, economic, and political predilections. Jews were believed to kill gentile children and use their blood for religious ceremonies; in different centuries they were censured as usurers, “blood‐sucking” economic predators, and plotters against Christian governments.

European immigrants brought anti‐Semitism to America as early as the seventeenth century. In 1654, Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, sought to prevent Jews from settling in what is now New York City. Throughout the Colonial Era, authorities limited the economic and political activities of Catholics and non‐Christians. In some colonies, Jews could not become lawyers or physicians. In most they could not vote. Jews gradually gained legal rights after the Revolutionary War, but not until 1877 did New Hampshire become the last state to lift its ban on non‐Christian voting.

Although anti‐Semitism to a degree remained part of the cultural baggage of successive waves of Christian immigrants from Europe, these prejudices were both molded and softened as the newcomers encountered a culturally diverse society and American commitments to the idea of tolerance. But while the restrictions on Jews in the United States were never as stringent as they had been in Europe, individual Jews often found themselves the targets of prejudice and ancient cultural stereotypes portraying them as cold‐hearted, cunning, and loathsome.

While anti‐Semitic attitudes have waxed and waned throughout American history, they were especially strong during the Civil War and the periods of heavy immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Passing of the Great Race (1916) by the prominent New York lawyer and civic leader Madison Grant purveyed a virulent anti‐Semitism. The national‐quota provisions of the immigration acts of 1921, 1924, and 1952 aimed to limit the number of Jewish (and Asian) immigrants.

Anti‐Semitism in America peaked between 1918 and 1945. The 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia led to a “Red scare” targeting aliens, especially Jews, who were thought to harbor subversive attitudes. Auto magnate Henry Ford ran a series in his Dearborn Independent newspaper, throughout the 1920s on “The International Jew.” The articles blamed every evil and moral failing in the United States on Jews and charged that Jews were plotting to overthrow existing governments. In the same decade housing and employment discrimination increased, colleges and universities established Jewish quotas, and leaders of society harbored a chilling animosity that contributed to the ostracism of Jews in many spheres.

During the Depression‐wracked 1930s, the presence of Jews among President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's advisers resulted in opponents of the New Deal labeling it the “Jew Deal.” In 1938, as Hitler's power increased in Germany, a Roman Catholic radio priest, Father Charles Coughlin, denounced Jews and encouraged his followers to join him in a “Christian Front.” Coughlin's attacks intensified over the next four years. In 1942, after the United States had entered World War II, Roosevelt threatened to jail Coughlin for sedition and Coughlin's superiors silenced him. But Coughlin was not alone. Anti‐Semitism in the State Department, the corporate world, and the public at large played a role in Washington's hesitant response to the desperate plight of European Jews persecuted by the Nazis.

American anti‐Semitism declined precipitously after World War II. The horror of the Holocaust, Hitler's genocidal program to exterminate European Jews, served to discredit the pronouncements of anti‐Semites. The 1947 film Gentleman's Agreement, starring Gregory Peck, exposed anti‐Jewish discrimination in American society. Civil rights organizations challenged various forms of discrimination. The American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, the Anti‐Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai B'rith monitored incidents of anti‐Semitism and sought legislation minimizing its impact. The AJ Committee also engaged in extensive study on the causes of anti‐Semitism, worked behind the scenes with elected political officials, and sponsored uplifiting radio programs designed to present Jews in a favorable light. The AJ Congress actively challenged existing institutional prejudices through the legal system, while the ADL both engaged in serious research on the causes of anti‐Semitism and sought media publicity to expose bigotry. By the end of the twentieth century, expressions of anti‐Semitism were quickly disavowed by leaders in religion, government, and business. But though much diminished, anti‐Semitism persisted, peddled by alienated, marginal organizations obsessed with conspiratorial theories, and exploited by some leaders of disadvantaged minorities as a focus for their anger and resentment.
See also Cultural Pluralism; Immigration Law; Judaism; New Deal Era, The; Twenties, The.

Bibliography

Bertram Korn , American Jewry and the Civil War, 1951.
Robert G. Weisbord and and Robert Stein , Bittersweet Encounter: The African American and the American Jew, 1970.
Michael Barkun , Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement, 1994.
Leonard Dinnerstein , Antisemitism in America, 1994.
Fred Jaher , A Scapegoat in the Wilderness, 1994.

Leonard Dinnerstein