In addition to the background of American group mind, already studied, and the imported theory of anti-Semitism, there are certain facts which affect the situation in its special manifestations. The most important of these is the great increase of Jewish population in the United States. At the time of the Know-Nothings there were not over 50,000 Jews in this country, and many of them had lived here since before the Revolution, possessing fine patriotic records; there was thus no motive to single them out for the anti-alien agitation of that period. At the time of the A. P. A., there were about 500,000 Jews, but these were still not a large enough group to attract special attention; they were widely scattered through the south and west; and the agitation against the larger numbers of Catholic immigrants passed them by. In 1925, however, the number of Jews in the United States is estimated at 3,600,000, of whom 1,735,000 have immigrated into America in the last 25 years, and 900,000 of these in the last 15. Here, then, is a tremendous body of Jews who are also foreigners, who speak the Yiddish language, adhere to traditional Jewish religious practices, and who are massed in great bodies in certain cities and in certain industries. The foreign Jew is thus more conspicuous today than any other immigrant group, even than those much larger in number. New York City alone has 1,500,000 Jews, such a huge number of whom are of obviously foreign origin that they are a conspicuous attraction for the intolerance of other groups in America. As Mecklin says: [104]The Jew, who has recently been coming to this country mainly from Russia and Southeastern Europe by hundreds and thousands, and who, true to his urban traits, has crowded into New York and other large cities where his native characteristics are thrust into the face of the native American on the street, in the hotel or department store, has also come in for his share of the prevalent fear psychology. Henry Ford ... has voiced the fears of the native American brought into close contact with the unassimilated and disagreeably alien Jewish population of our large centers.