The International Jew, the world's foremost problem [volume I] : $b being a reprint of a series of articles appearing in the Dearborn Independent from May 22 to October 2, 1920Ford, Henry
General
The International Jew, the world's foremost problem [volume I] : $b being a reprint of a series of articles appearing in the Dearborn Independent from May 22 to October 2, 1920
Ford, Henry
Antisemitic literature; Jews -- United States; United States -- Ethnic relations
2. Another cause of the Question appearing here will be the great influx
of Jews which is planned for America. There will probably be a million
Jews enter the country this year, increasing our Jewish population to
nearly 4,500,000. This does not mean merely an immigration of persons,
but an immigration of ideas. No Jewish writer has ever told us, in
systematic fashion, just what is the Jews' idea of non-Jews, how they
regard the Gentiles in their private minds. But there are indications of
it, although one would not attempt to reconstruct the Jewish attitude
toward Gentiles. A Jew ought to do this for us, but he would probably be
cast out by his own people if he discharged his task with rigorous
jealousy for the exact fact.
These people are coming here regarding the Gentile as an hereditary
enemy, as perhaps they have good ground for doing, and so believing they
are going to model their behavior in a manner that will show it. Nor
will these Jews be so helpless as they appear. In stricken Poland, where
the Jews are represented as having been stripped of everything during
the war, there are hundreds daily appearing before the consulate to
arrange their passage here. The fact is significant. In spite of their
reputed suffering and poverty, they are able to travel a great distance
and to insist on coming. No other people are financially able to travel
in such numbers. But the Jews are. It will readily be seen that they are
not objects of charity. They have been able to keep afloat in a storm
that has wrecked the other people. They know it and they joy in it, as
is natural. And they will bring here the same thoughts toward the
majority which they have harbored in their present lands of domicile.
They may hail America; they will have their own thoughts about the
majority of the American people. They may be in the lists as Russians or
Poles or what not, but they will be Jews with the full Jewish
consciousness, and they will make themselves felt.
All this is bound to have its effect. And it is not race prejudice to
prepare for it, and to invite American Jews themselves to consider the
fact and contribute to the solution of the problem which it presents.
3. Every idea which has ruled Europe has met with transformation when it
was transplanted in America. It was so with the idea of Liberty, the
idea of Government, the idea of War. It will be so with the idea of
anti-Semitism. The whole problem will center here and if we are wise and
do not shirk it, it will find its solution here. A recent Jewish writer
has said: "Jewry today largely means American Jewry . . . . . . . . . .
all former Jewish centers were demolished during the war and were
shifted to America." The problem will be ours, whether we choose it or
not.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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