But then the problem changed; the number of Jews increased from 3,000 in 1800 to 250,000 in 1880. Some of these achieved wealth and began to associate with non-Jewish social circles. The opposition to them now became largely social. They were excluded from many hotels and summer resorts, from clubs, college fraternities and the like. This phase of the problem was often acute but never important, and is here mentioned merely in passing, though it will have its bearing on the theory to be developed. In addition, the religious prejudice continued, similar to that between Christian denominations but stronger, owing to the frequent teaching of Jewish responsibility for the crucifixion. These two aspects of anti-Judaism persisted as the only ones in America until after the World War, and these were sporadic, and often opposed by the tendency of our political democracy and by various groups of religious liberals.
Meanwhile, modern racialism had been born and with it modern anti-Semitism, the attack on the Jew as a member of a different race, inferior or at least unassimilable by the Aryan. Writers against the Jew no longer turned for their weapons to Eisenmenger’s “Endecktes Judentum” of 1701, with its religious criticism and personal strictures. The new classics are Werner Sombart’s “Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben” and Drumont’s “La France Juive.” An elaborate scientific basis has been constructed, on which a movement of opposition was erected, apparently much the same as that of the Inquisition or of Apion. One of the conclusions of the present study will be that it is in fact the same, and that the racial theory can be almost overlooked in estimating the actual causes and processes of anti-Semitism. It would be an interesting, though not essential task, to examine this racial theory in detail and determine how much scientific authenticity it may possess. In Russia the conditions of autocracy threatened by liberalism and war led to official anti-Semitism, with pogroms or massacres of the Jews actually led by army officers. In Germany the officialism and social stratification led to discrimination against Jews in the appointment of judges, university professors and army officers. In France anti-Semitism became a part of royalism and clericalism, and from the military and royalist group came the Dreyfus case. In England anti-Semitism was chiefly literary; Hillaire Belloc proves the Jews to be aliens who should all be sent to Palestine, while Gilbert K. Chesterton visits Palestine and reports that the Jews there are terrible creatures and ought to be excluded from the Holy Land!
But all this time there was no anti-Semitism, as a literary, political or economic movement in the United States. That was a product of the period after the World War. There was merely religious prejudice of the orthodox and social ostracism of the elite among gentile society. The Jew had not even attracted the special attention of the various anti-alien movements in American history, owing to his small numbers and frequent rapid Americanization. It seemed as though anti-Semitism was a movement foreign to American life and institutions. Now, however, the movement exists and may be considered briefly in four phases.
1. The first to be considered is the attempt to limit the percentage of Jews in American universities. The “numerus clausus,” typical of Russia under the Czars, has been one of the favorite projects of the anti-Semitic parties in various European countries, working either through their representatives in the parliaments or through their sympathizers in the universities themselves. Whether the motive was to brand the Jew as inferior mentally, or to make him so through lack of education, is hard to say—probably it is merely another manifestation of the process which this paper aims to trace.
In American institutions of higher learning there has been a growing problem of the increase of entering classes, as well as a growing perplexity at the number of Jewish immigrants who seek an advanced education. These young people often lack American manners and background, standing out from the great mass of the student body, whether for good or bad is immaterial. What more natural than that some would attempt to solve the two problems at once by excluding a certain percentage of these objectionable persons, at the same time cutting down enrollment? I do not speak of rumors that this purpose has been achieved in certain institutions by personal interviews, psychological tests, and the like, even though statistics seem to bear out this interpretation. I consider only the Harvard incident, which is public and official.
In June 1922 President Lowell of Harvard, in his address at the graduation exercises drew attention to the double phase of the problem, the increase of registration and the danger to the social and personal standard of the university, and recommended its full investigation by committees of the faculty and board of trustees of the university. The sensation caused by this bringing into the open of a subject long covertly agitated, especially in view of the large Jewish population of Boston, and fairly large registration at Harvard, was extreme. The matter came to an end April 9, 1923, when the committee recommendation was accepted by the Board of Overseers for the University. The report recommended:
In the administration of rules for admission Harvard College maintains its traditional policy of freedom from discrimination on grounds of race or religion. Concerning proportional representation, your committee is unanimous in recommending that no departure be made from the policy that has so long approved itself—the policy of equal opportunity for all, regardless of race or religion. Any action liable to interpretation as an acceptance of the principle of racial discrimination would to many seem like a dangerous surrender of traditional ideals.
The report even avoids recommending any test of personal fitness which might be interpreted as a cover for racial or religious discrimination.
2. A further expression of anti-Semitism appeared in the form of books and magazine articles. “The Cause of World Unrest,” an English book, was reprinted in 1920 by G. P. Putnam’s Sons of New York; “The Protocols of the Meetings of the Zionist Men of Wisdom” by Small, Maynard and Co. of Boston in the same year; “The Jews in America” by Burton J. Hendrick, appeared as a series of articles in the World’s Work, and was issued later as a book by Doubleday Page and Co. of New York in 1923. Periodicals such as “The Searchlight” of Atlanta, the “Fellowship Forum” of Washington, D. C., and “The American Standard” of New York City (to mention only a few of a large number) conducted an active campaign against Jews and Catholics, which still continues.
Most conspicuous of all was the long series of articles on the Jewish problem carried by the Dearborn Independent of Dearborn, Mich., the personal organ of Mr. Henry Ford. This series began in May, 1920; the four booklets containing their reprinted form are dated, the first on November, 1920; the fourth, May 1922. They take ostensibly the position that international finance, under the leadership of certain Jews, is endeavoring to rule the world. Actually, however, they use any anti-Semitic theme that comes to hand, from the race theory to articles on the “Jewish liquor trust” and “the Jewish aids of Benedict Arnold.” Their chief arsenal of material is the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, referred to above, a purported record of secret meetings held by leaders of world Jewry with the object of overthrowing the gentile nations and ruling the world themselves. This work first saw the light in Russia in 1901 and was utilized in 1905 as part of the propaganda against the abortive revolution of that year; it was the work of one Serge Nilus. Later study has shown it to be a forgery, largely copied from a French political pamphlet directed against Napoleon III and published in Brussels in 1865 by Maurice Joly under the title, “Dialogues in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu”! The Russian editions of this work, and those in German, as well, included virulent attacks on Britain and America as representatives of liberalism, and therefore of Judaism; naturally, these have been omitted from the English versions.