1. The purpose of our committees is to promote mutual understanding and good will in the place of suspicion and ill will in the entire range of our inter-religious and social relations.
2. Because of our mutual respect for the integrity of each other’s religion and our desire that each faith shall enjoy the fullest opportunity for its development and enrichment, these committees have no proselytizing purpose.
3. We endorse the statement of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, made by its Administrative Committee in the resolution of September 22, 1922, declaring that the “rise of organizations whose members are masked, oath-bound and unknown, and whose activities have the effect of arousing religious prejudices and racial antipathies, is fraught with grave consequences to the church and to society at large.” To this statement we add our conviction that such organizations violate the fundamental principles and ideals of our country and of religion, and merit our condemnation.
4. We realize, further, that we best reveal our fellowship by practical co-operation in common tasks, and it is our endeavor to formulate a program by which to realize the high purposes and noble endeavors of mutual good will and helpfulness.
2.
While some non-Jews were trying to break up the group ideas which were expressed in anti-Semitism, whether through drawing away individuals by argument, or through diverting groups by the prestige of great names, the Jews themselves were far from idle. There was a flood of books, articles, speeches, designed to show that the Jews have had a proud share in American history in the past, are now patriotic citizens, are being wronged by calumny, and so on. Most of these were quite worthless for their purpose, for anti-Semitism was not caused by the arguments against the Jews at all; moreover, they were plainly apologetic and would not have impressed a prejudiced person in the least. But the work of several great Jewish organizations was of a different order.
Among a number of these organizations I select three which have, from their inception, made this one of their prime purposes of existence. The oldest of these is the American Jewish Committee, of which Mr. Louis Marshall of New York City is president. This organization was founded in 1906 with the purpose of defending Jewish rights at home and abroad; its immediate occasion was the Kishineff massacre in Russia, with the consequent strengthening of Jewish group loyalty in the United States as well. The annual reports of this body, published in the various volumes of the American Jewish Yearbook, reveal, besides other activities, a variety of defense methods—a personal protest to the head of a publishing firm which was producing the “Protocols”; efforts on behalf of newly arrived immigrants; the completion and publication in summary form of the record of American Jews in the army, navy and marine corps during the World War; attempts to befriend persecuted Jews in foreign lands. On December 1, 1920, this committee published an “Address to their Fellow Citizens on the Protocols, Bolshevism and the Jews,” which was signed also by representatives of nine other Jewish organizations—rabbinical conferences, unions of congregations and the like. This statement rehearsed the proofs against the current charges of anti-Semitism and appealed to the American public, with the evident hope of breaking up the group mind that was then filled with the image of anti-Semitism. It ends in this fashion:
We have an abiding confidence in the spirit of justice and fairness that permeates the true American, and we are satisfied that our fellow-citizens will not permit the campaign of slander and libel that has been launched against us to go unreproved.... Let not hatred and misunderstanding arise where peace and harmony, unity and brotherliness, are required to perpetuate all that America represents, and to enable all men to know that within her wide boundaries there is no room for injustice and intolerance.
The Anti-Defamation League, with its headquarters at Chicago, was founded in 1913 under the auspices of the Independent Order B’nai B’rith to carry on a somewhat different work. Its executive secretary for almost this entire period was Mr. Leon L. Lewis, now Grand Secretary of the Order. Its first activity, which it has continued throughout, was to issue individual protests to such magazines, newspapers, motion picture producers, vaudeville managers, etc., as allowed anti-Semitic tendencies to creep into their productions. In many cases a friendly protest was enough to stop the propaganda; in some extreme instances, no result whatever could be achieved, as the work in question was a direct expression of intolerance. Since the actual anti-Semitic movement began in the United States, the Anti-Defamation League has broadened its activities, has published some material refuting charges against the Jew, has circulated this through the country, has investigated various anti-Jewish organizations and so on. It has rendered great service in diverting from the anti-Semitic sub-group such individuals as drifted into it more or less by accident but who were not definitely aligned with it.
Finally, the American Jewish Congress, organized in Philadelphia on December 15, 1919, has passed certain resolutions of interest to the general public. Its chief work, however, was the appointment of delegates to represent the American Jews at Paris during the Peace Conference. Largely through the efforts of this delegation and similar ones from the Jews of other countries, the rights of Jewish and other minorities in the newly constituted countries of eastern Europe were protected by treaty, and Palestine was made a British mandatory, with special rights of settlement for the Jews. This work, which has proved so important with regard to anti-Semitism abroad, has comparatively little direct influence on its American phase.