The Jewish Response to Anti-Semitism in the Context
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THE JEWISH RESPONSE TO ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERGROUP RELATIONS IN BOSTON AND NEW YORK CITY, 1938-1948 by Zvi Ganin off־Presented to Dr-. Nathan M. Kagan April 1971 THE JEWISH RESPONSE TO ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERGROUP RELATIONS IN BOSTON AND NEW YORK CITY, 1938-1948 by Zvi Ganin Presented to Dr. Nathan 1*1. Kaganoff April 1971 BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY WALTHAM.MASSACHUSETTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Abbreviations ' ii Introduction 1 Chapter I The First Stage: the Nazi Challenge and the Jewish Response in Boston and New York City, 1938-1940 4 Chapter II The Second Stage: the Boston Incidents, 1941-1943 19 Chapter III The Second Stage: the New York City Incidents, 1941-1943 39 Chapter IV The Debate over Jewish Strategy in Combatting Anti-Semitism 48 Chapter V Antecedents and Creation of the Mayor's Committee on Unity 59 Chapter VI Accomplishments of the Mayor's Committee on Unity 77 Conclusion 100 Appendix 103 Notes 104 Bibliography 113 LIST •OF ABBREVIATIONS Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith American Jewish Congress American Jewish Committ9e Associated Jewish Philanthropies of Boston Central Advisory Committee, Boston Fair Employment Practice Committee Mayor's Committee on Unity ii INTRODUCTION Alexander Pekelis, one of the most creative thinkers in the field of civil rights and Jewish social action once remarked, "Anti-Semitic action usually takes three main forms. That of discrimination, of defamation, and of violence."^ Discrimination and defamation were part of the American Jewish experience, but the appearance in America of Nazi- inspired and financed anti-Semitism was a new phenomenon. Starting in the early 1930's, it emerged on the American scene, bringing with it organized Nazi agitation, vandalism and violence against Jews. This brand of anti- Semitism was particularly manifest in New York City and Boston. The response of New York and Boston Jewries to the menace was a measure of the political power, communal strength and psychological resourcefulness of these communities during the late 1930's and the War years. This study begins by describing the incidents of overt anti- Semitism in two specific places at a particular time, and by investigating the Jewish response to them. This is followed by evaluation of the role of public opinion within the Boston and New York Jewish communities and that of the non-Jewish press in pressuring Mayor La Guardia of New York City and Governor Saltonstall of Massachusetts to take action against the assaults on Jewish children. A major emphasis has been placed upon a study of the Mayor's Committee on Unity. The MCOU is of special interest because its creation and accomplishments are a microcosm of the multi-ethnic problems of New York City. Moreover, the Committee's story also reflects the weaknesses - 1 - - 2 - and strengths of New York Jewry in its relations with the blacks, the Irish, the Catholic Church and the city administration. Because of my interest in the Jewish response within the wider context of the Boston and New York polities, this study does not attempt either to treat comprehensively intergroup relations in these cities, or to present a systematic history of the MCOU during its ten years of existence. My aim, rather, is to trace the Jewish role in the creation of the Committee and to investigate MCOU contributions, mainly during its first and most active stage, whan Professor Dan W. Dodson was the executive director (1944-1948). In preparing this study, I had access to the La Guardia papers on the Committee at the Municipal Archives of New York City, and the collection of the late Judge Nathan D. Perlman at the American Jewish Historical Society. Though they contain a wealth of information, the La Guardia papers reveal little of his personal attitude toward anti- Semitic incidents or the creation of the MCOU. The Perlman collection is a mine of information on MCOU activities, but unfortunately it contains only letters and documents which the Judge received and none of his responses. Therefore I had to bridge the gaps in the New York (and the Boston) story with several interviews. I wish to thank Dr. John Slawson, Executive Vice-President Emeritus of the American Jewish Committee, for his interest, advice, and the financial assistance of the Committse. For data on the Dorchester incidents, I should like to express my debt to Mr. Max' Belsky, publisher of the Dorchester Record, who gave me access to back issues and lent ma his valuable scrapbook of newspaper - 3 - clippings. Thanks are also due to Mr. Robert E. SegalExecutive Director of the Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Boston, for allowing me to examine the files of the Central Advisory Committee. The editor of the Jewish Advocate, Mr. Joseph G. Weisberg, was kind enough to give me access to back issues. Mr. Harry J. Alderman, Library Director of the American Jewish Committee, was helpful in facilitating my research. CHAPTER I THE FIRST STAGE: THE NAZI CHALLENGE AND THE JEWISH RESPONSE IN BOSTON AND NEW YORK CITY, 1938-1940. During the twilight days before Pearl Harbor a Nazi movement challenged America. On the streets of New York City Nazi agitators were busy mouthing their teachings. In Yorkville, the German section of New York, one of the most gifted of these demagogues went even further. In 1940 he ran for Congress on an anti-Semitic platform, declaring, "I am Joseph E. McWilliams, the anti-Jewish candidate for Congress from this 1 district." By the beginning of the Second World War the number of anti- Semitic and Nazi groups mushroomed. Within a decade the few groups of the 1930's had proliferated into more than 500. These organizations made several attempts to create a united front in 1936, 1937, and finally in ׳ All these attempts failed because of factors particular to the 2 .1939 3 cultural, ethnic and religious traditions of the United States. But the actual behind-the-scene work that brought about the disruption of the organized anti-Semitic movement was carried out by the Jewish defense organizations. They responded to the Nazi challenge creatively and ingeniously. Grass-roots support for the Nazi movement was prevalent among German and Irish Catholics in the large urban centers of the East and Midwest. It was particularly endemic in German and Irish neighborhoods in New York City and Boston. Neighborhood youth fighting was not a new phenomenon to the - 4• > - 5 - urban centers. Irish, Italian, and Jewish youth tangled in street fights, raided "enemy" territory and established control of their own neighbor- hoods. Such incidents were considered by the police and inhabitants of the mixed neighborhoods as "kid stuff," indigenous to the rough life in lower-class sections of the big city. This was also the pattern of life in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan, the dense sections of Boston, where in the 1930's and 1940's sixty per cent of Greater Boston's 140,000 Jews lived. Dorchester was predominantly Jewish, whereas Roxbury and Mattapan 4 also had a large number of Irish and some Italians. In Boston, the Depression, the imported Nazi propaganda and the latent anti-Semitism of the Irish had contributed to the creation of a new phenomenon, overt anti-Semitism. Father Coughlin's radio addresses found a receptive audience, and his weekly Social Justice was sold in Boston in thousands of copies. In 1939, Francis Moran, a Coughlin disciple, established a branch of the Christian Front in Boston, "The Boston Committee for the Defense of Constitutional Rights." In September 1939., this organization attracted 6,000 people to a mass meeting at the Boston Arena. The center of the Francis Moran's activities was the Hibernian Hall in Roxbury, close to Jewish Dorchester. At such meetings anti-Semitic speeches were delivered, and hate literature, including the Tablet, was sold to enthusiastic audiences. Soon after the creation of the Christian Front branch in Boston the character of its activities became more menacing. Constant anti- Jewish agitation at the Hibernian Hall fomented into frequent assaults by Irish teen-agers on Jewish youths at Dorchester High School, at the Hecht Neighborhood House in Dorchester (the main Jewish community center in the ־ 6 ־ area), and mare generally, in the streets of Dorchester. Parallel, but far more intense anti-Jewish agitation, occasionally coupled with violence, occurred in New York City. From 1938 to 1940, New York Jews were facing a new phenomenon, the Street Scene. Members of Nazi groups, particularly the Christian Mobilizers and the Christian Front conducted a vigorous anti-Jewish campaign. Led by an able demagogue, Joseph E. McWilliams, the Christian Mobilizers held as many as ninety meetings on street corners in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. The pattern of the street-corner meeting was usually the same. The Nazi agitators used to describe the Jews in crude and vulgar terms: By Jesus! we Christians know our enemies, first those 'mockies' crucified our Lord and now they're trying to crucify Father Coughlin. The Izzy Iskovitzes (Eddie Cantor) and Jack Bennys can get all the radio time they want, but that golden-foiced man of Cod has to fight like hell for one little station. Who wants to keep Father Coughlin off the air? The sweating crowd roars back like a well-drilled chorus: ,The Jews!' (Only some yell 'the kikes' and others ,the mockies.')6 In addition to the street-corner harangues, the Christian Mobilizers were engaged in sporadic acts of violence. Jews were insulted and assaulted on the streets* subway stations and cars: A favorite tactic is to make jibes at a Jewish girl in the presence of her escort; the swain, thus provoked, attacks and is beaten by superior numbers.