Anti-Semitism in the United States : $b Its history and causesLevinger, Lee J. (Lee Joseph)
History
Anti-Semitism in the United States : $b Its history and causes
Levinger, Lee J. (Lee Joseph)
Antisemitism -- United States; Jews -- United States
Dr. I. Berkson in his “Theories of Americanization” has developed
in detail four types of theory for the relation of the sub-groups,
especially the immigrant sub-groups, to the American nation. Of these
the first two imply uniformity, “Americanization” by imposing the
social and cultural standards of the Anglo-Saxon group on the newer
arrivals; the “Melting-Pot” by which uniformity is to be achieved
through a general admixture and intermingling, racial or social.
The viewpoint of Americanization has been mentioned previously in
this study—the view that the United States ought to be a homogeneous
people, and that the proper standard of homogeneity is that of
the white, Protestant, gentile group, of Anglo-Saxon origin. The newer
arrivals are expected to forget their native languages and habits,
to throw off their former loyalties, to copy the standards of life
which they see already established in this country. The new loyalty is
conceived as antagonistic to the old; the demands of democracy that
the new citizen also shall express himself are quite disregarded. The
rapidity of the process of intermarriage among many immigrant groups,
and the still greater speed of social adaptation and assimilation are
evidences that this theory has something in its favor. The awakening
group loyalties which its repressive methods arouse show definitely
that it has not the final word. As Lewis S. Gannet put it:
[123]We are forcing the Jew to choose between assimilation with
complete loss of group identity, and the establishment of entirely
independent cultural institutions—and we are shoving him more and
more toward the latter choice.... It is not so much anti-Semitism,
Christian theology, or Jewish traits that stand in the way as the smug
Anglo-Saxon tradition of exclusiveness and self-sufficiency.
A variation of this, which posits uniformity, but not the uniformity of
one group imposed on all the rest, is the Melting-Pot theory. The term
was fathered by Israel Zangwill, who made the young Jewish immigrant
exclaim:
[124]America is God’s Crucible, the great Melting Pot where all the
races of Europe are melting and reforming!—Here you stand, good folks,
think I, when I see you at Ellis Island, here you stand in your fifty
groups, with your fifty languages and histories, and your fifty blood
hatreds and rivalries. But you won’t be long like that, brothers, for
these are the fires of God you come to—these are the fires of God. A
fig for your feuds and your vendettas! German and Frenchman, Irishman
and English, Jews and Russians, into the Crucible with you all! God is
making the American!
Something of the same view seems to be voiced by John J. Smertenko:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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