Plus ça change...

Anti-Semitism has deep roots in American history. So does the struggle against it.

For reasons I don’t think I need to explain, I’m republishing here the complete text of an open letter that appeared in The New York Times on January 17, 1921. The signatories were leading American citizens of all stripes, including President Woodrow Wilson.

Although Henry Ford’s name is not mentioned, he is the letter’s raison d’être.

One of the world’s richest men, beloved by millions, Ford was widely seen as not only a brilliant manufacturer but a visionary leader who could solve the world’s woes. He was even touted as a future president.

But Ford was also increasingly open about who he thought was to blame for so many of the world’s woes. It was, in his usual terminology, “international bankers.” Which meant Jews. He bought a Dearborn newspaper, bankrolled its national expansion, and turned it into a mouthpiece so viciously anti-Semitic it even republished the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in its entirety.

This was a time of international turmoil and increasingly extreme ideologies. It was a time of exploding extremism and nativism, anti-immigrant vitriol, and racist pogroms like the Oklahoma City massacre. It was a time when the economy was struggling. For millions of Americans, it was a time when it felt like the world they knew was falling apart.

And Henry Ford was flicking lit matches at a gas pump.

The letter’s signatories spoke up.

The undersigned, citizens of Gentile birth and Christian faith, view with profound regret and disapproval the appearance in this country of what is apparently an organized campaign of anti-Semitism, conducted in close conformity to and co-operation with similar campaigns in Europe. We regret exceedingly the publication of a number of book pamphlets and newspaper articles designed to foster distrust and suspicion of our fellow-citizens of Jewish ancestry and faith—distrust and suspicion of their loyalty and patriotism.

These publications, to which wide circulation is being given, are thus introducing into our national political life a new and dangerous spirit, one that is wholly at variance with our traditions and ideals and subversive of our system of government. American citizenship and American democracy are thus challenged and menaced. We protest against this organized campaign of prejudice and hatred, not only because of its manifest injustice to those against whom it is directed, but also and especially, because we are convinced that it is wholly incompatible with loyal and intelligent American citizenship. The logical outcome of the success of such a campaign must necessarily be the division of our citizens along racial and religious lines, and ultimately, the introduction of religious tests and qualifications to determine citizen-ship.

The loyalty and patriotism of our fellow-citizens of the Jewish faith is equal to that of any part of our people, and requires no defense at our hands. From the foundation of this Republic down to the World War, men and women of Jewish ancestry and faith have taken an honorable part in building up this great nation and maintaining its prestige and honor among the nations of the world. There is not the slightest justification, therefore, for a campaign of anti-Semitism in this country.

Anti-Semitism is almost invariably associated with lawlessness and with brutality and injustice. It is also invariably found closely inter-twined with other sinister forces, particularly those which are corrupt, reactionary and oppressive.

We believe it should not be left to men and women of Jewish faith to fight this evil, but that it is in a very special sense the duty of citizens who are not Jews by ancestry or faith. We therefore make earnest protest against this vicious propaganda, and call upon our fellow-citizens of Gentile birth and Christian faith to unite their efforts to ours, to the end that it may be crushed. In particular, we call upon those who are molders of public opinion—the clergy and ministers of all Christian churches, publicists, teachers, editors and statesmen—to strike at his un-American and un-Christian agitation.

The undersigned:

Woodrow Wilson

William Howard Taft

Wm. Cardinal O'Connell

Lyman Abbott

Jane Addams

John S. Agar

Newton D. Baker

Ray Stannard Baker

James M. Beck

Charles A. Beard

Bernard I. Bell

Arthur E. Bestor

Albert J. Beveridge

Mabel T. Boardman

Evangeline Booth

Benjamin Brewster

Chauncey B. Brewster

Jeffrey R. Brackett

Horace J. Bridges

Henry Bruere

William Jennings Bryan

Nicholas Murray Butler

Bainbridge Colby

Alice B. Coleman

George W. Coleman

Paul D. Cravath

George Creel

Samuel Chord Crothers

Olive Tilford Dargan

R. Fulton Cutting

Clarence Darrow

James R. Day

Henry S. Dennison

W.E.B. Dubois

James Duncan

Robert Erskine Ely

Charles P. Fagnani

W.H.P. Fawnce

Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Irving Fisher

John Ford

Raymond B. Fosdick

Robert Frost

H. A. Garfield

James R. Garfield

Lindley M. Garrison

John Palmer Gavit

Herbert Adams Gibbons

Charles Dana Gibson

Franklin H. Giddings

Martin H. Glynn

George Gray

Edward Everett Hale

James Hartness

Patrick J. Hayes

John Grier Hibbon

Jesse H. Holmes

John Haynes Holmes

Hamilton Holt

Ernest Martin Hopkins

Frederic C. Howe

Henry C. Idle

Inez Haynes Irwin

Will Irwin

George R. James

David Starr Jordan

William W. Keen

Paul U. Kellogg

William Sergeant Kendall

George Kennan

Henry Churchill King

Darwin P. Kingsley

W. P. Ladd

Ira Landrith

Franklin K. Lane

Robert Lansing

Julia C. Lathrop

Ben B. Lindsley

Charles H. Levermore

Frederick Lynch

Edwin Markham

Mrs. Edwin Markham

Daniel Gregory Mason

Joseph Ernest McAfee

J. F. McElwain

Raymond McFarland

E. T. Meredith

James F. Minturn

John Moody

William Fellows Morgan

Charles Clayton Morrison

Philip Stafford Moxom

Joseph Fort Newton

D. J. O'Connell

Mary Boyle O'Reilly

George Wharton Pepper

Louis F. Post

Theodore Roosevelt

Charles Edward Russell

Jacob Gould Schurman

Vida D. Scudder

Samuel Seabury

Thomas J. Shahan

Charles M. Sheldon

Edwin E. Slosson

Preston Slosson

Robert E. Speer

Charles Stelzle

Paul Moore Strayer

Marion Talbot

Ida M. Tarbell

Harry F. Ward

Everett P. Wheller

Gaylord S. White

George W. Wickersham

Charles David Williams

Carles Zueblin

John Spargo