A recent bio by A. Scott Berg describes him as holding common anti-semitic beliefs, not "deviant" for the time. But unfortunately those beliefs led him into a very dark and destructive place.
Indeed, it would have been ideal if he had an innate sense of social justice. If I remember my sociology lessons, had he been pro Jewish, he would have been deviant and ignored. Progress is a process often not efferent nor straight, and with lots of suffering.
Jewish Americans have flourished in America, enjoying immense freedom and opportunities. But like other minorities, Jewish Americans have also faced prejudice, especially during periods of economic hardship or war. During World War I and the Great Depression, Jews were often targeted as...
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The Leo Frank incident also led to a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). By the mid-1920s, the KKK claimed to have four million members, more than all the Jews in the United States. In the midst of this turmoil and despite protestations at the time, President Woodrow Wilson nominated Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme Court in 1916. As the first Jew to serve on the Court, Justice Brandeis had to endure bitter taunts, particularly from fellow justice James C. McReynolds. In the 1920s, Henry Ford, who revolutionized mass production in American industry, relentlessly blamed Jewish Americans for many of the nation's ills in his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. It was only after World War II that barriers to Jewish Americans began to dissipate in America.
During the 1930's, Americans began to read about growing anti-Semitism and discrimination against European Jews. At the start of World War II, in 1941, reports of atrocities against Jews began to be reported by eyewitnesses and in the media. Here are film clips and excerpts from the companion...
www.pbs.org
During the 1930's, Americans began to read about growing anti-Semitism and discrimination against European Jews. At the start of World War II, in 1941, reports of atrocities against Jews began to be reported by eyewitnesses and in the media.
Here are film clips and excerpts from the companion book that reflect on how Jewish Americans responded to the Holocaust. Despite efforts by Jewish Americans, such as Rabbi Stephen Wise, the Roosevelt administration did not do everything in its power to respond to the reports of German atrocities against the Jews of Europe. President Roosevelt had many concerns while fighting the war, among them fearing the war would be misconstrued as a Jew war, as one commentator recalled. One extensive clip explores how the American government reacted at first to the news of the atrocities and how FDR, being pushed by Henry Morgenthau, then Secretary of the Treasury, tried to save the European Jews.