Aspects of Jewish power in the United States $b : volume IV of the International Jew, the world's foremost problem : being a reprint of a fourth selection from articles appearing in the Dearborn IndependentFord, Henry
General
Aspects of Jewish power in the United States $b : volume IV of the International Jew, the world's foremost problem : being a reprint of a fourth selection from articles appearing in the Dearborn Independent
Ford, Henry
Antisemitic literature; Jews -- United States; United States -- Ethnic relations
That is a strange assertion. The Jews must not be written about. To
write about them, even with good intent, may bring evil upon them. Not
only a strange assertion, but a strange situation. To mention the Jew
has always been dangerous to the non-Jew; but why also dangerous to the
Jew? The Jewish explanation of anti-Semitism, that it is in the blood of
the other races, that the moment they see a Jew they hate him, cannot be
defended. Most non-Jews can testify that it is untrue of them. But it is
a most amazing condition if even a mention of Jews arouses this feeling.
Why should it?
However, the statement is of doubtful fact-value. The Jew himself should
be the first to protest against having to go concealed all his days. He
should welcome the use of his definite racial name, and he should not
demand that it always be used in laudatory connections. A Jew should not
be a Jew when he is elected to the United States Senate, and a “Russian”
or a “Pole” when he is caught bootlegging. He should take the luck of
life with the other races, and this would come to him without
discrimination if he did not first arouse the spirit of discrimination
by insisting on discrimination in his own favor.
It is probably much nearer the truth to say that publicity is a
preventive of “Jew-Baiting.” People should not be confined in a
condition which makes the use of the word “Jew” unusual. It should
attract no more attention than does the use of any other racial name.
Mr. Page was, before his ambassadorial days, an editor of the _Atlantic
Monthly_, a magazine which is an integral part of American life. To read
the _Atlantic_ is a certificate of character. It is one of the few
publications that preserve the American spirit in literature. It is
still worthy the glory of the group that first made its name known
wherever sound thought expressed in good writing is appreciated. The
_Atlantic_ is not in need of this appraisal, it is too well established
in the regard of the class of minds that give color and sinew to our
intellectual life. In Mr. Page’s day the _Atlantic_ may never have
touched the Jewish Question with even so much as the tip of a discreet
pen.
Nevertheless the _Atlantic_ has in more recent years done its duty
toward this as toward other questions. As far back as 1917, and that is
very far back in view of the crowded years between, this old Boston
magazine contained an article relating to the Jewish Question. The fact
that the article was written by a Jew does not militate against it, but
rather adds to its value. It contained valuable suggestions which the
New York Kehillah and the American Jewish Committee might well devote
the remaining years of their activity to disseminating and actualizing
among the Jews of this country. Even today its counsel would save them
from much of the folly which marks their attempts to combat what they
call “persecution,” and which is nothing but rather plain and charitable
truth-telling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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