opinion
A Campaign Against Jew-hatred
That Actually Worked
By Karen Lehrman Bloch
S ince I started writing about antisemitism about
a decade ago, I’ve had trouble answering one
question: Why are Jews, who excel in fields from
science to literature to music, so bad at confronting
antisemitism? Part of the answer is that antisemitism is irra-
tional — based on conspiracy theories that morph
every century. It’s also sadly the case that many
Jews today in a position to create change — pro-
fessors, heads of nonprofits, CEOs — prefer to sup-
press their Jewish identity to maintain their social
“status.” But neither of these things fully explains
how, for instance, the lies of “Palestinianism” have
been able to completely consume our campuses.

However, a small exhibition at the New York
Historical Society shows that this was not always
the case. “Confronting Hate 1937-1952” examines
how a groundbreaking media campaign launched
by the American Jewish Committee to combat
rising antisemitism in the United States actually
worked. AJC CEO David Harris calls the exhibit
“a testament to the vision of creative individuals
committed to preserving and strengthening our
pluralistic democracy.”
American antisemitism didn’t begin in the mid-
20th century, but it did reach a dangerous peak.

In 1935, a newspaper called American Gentile
declared on its front page, “Let’s Take America
Away From the Jews!” and “Jewish CARTHAGE Must
Be Destroyed if Free America Is To Survive!” By
1937, roughly 50 demonstrations a week, includ-
ing rallies at Madison Square Garden, spewed
antisemitic propaganda, openly inciting violence.

Organizations such as the Anti-Jewish League,
Protect American Rights and the American National
Party distributed leaflets with slogans like “White
Men Do Not Buy From Jews” and “Buy Gentile,
Employ Gentile, Vote Gentile.” One 1938 survey
found that nearly 41% of Americans thought that
Jews had too much power.

The AJC campaign, spearheaded by advertising
executive Richard Rothschild, partnered with doz-
ens of artists, writers, political leaders, women’s
and church groups and celebrities — including
Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland — to spread anti-
hate messages across the U.S. in innovative ways.

Rothschild produced graphic posters, newspaper
ads and pamphlets, as well as comic books such as
They Got the Blame, which chronicled the history
of scapegoating.

Nazism, Rothschild said in a 1973 interview,
sought to spread internal discord. “Divisiveness can
14 DECEMBER 8, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
be the source of a country’s greatest weakness,” he
asserted. His goal was to show the evil of antisemi-
tism and, at the same time, the importance of unity.

“It would not be enough to show that antisemitism
was bad for Jews,” he said. “We had to show that it
was bad for America and Americans.”
For the first six years of the project, the AJC did
not affix its name to it. That changed after the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a short doc-
umentary about an extraordinary 15-minute radio
broadcast on Sunday, Oct. 29, 1944. “Today, the
National Broadcasting Co. brings its listeners a pro-
gram of historic moment,” war correspondent James
Cassidy said at the opening of the show. “The first
direct broadcast of a Jewish religious service from
German soil since Adolf Hitler and his Nazis began
the destruction not only of the Jewish religion but of
all religions more than a decade ago.”
The service, produced by the AJC and its radio direc-
tor Milton Krents, took place in an open field near the
site of a demolished synagogue in Aachen, Germany.

With the sound of artillery thundering in the back-
the spirit and resilience of American GIs as they
fought to eradicate Nazism,” Historical Society
curator Debra Schmidt Bach said. “Milton Krents
understood the symbolism and importance of the
service, and we are fortunate that he left us this
poignant legacy and vivid example of the power of
American cooperation.”
Forgotten in the decades after the war, the ser-
vice at Aachen is only available to us now because
of a chance discovery by AJC archive director
Charlotte Bonelli, who noticed a brief mention of it
in a Krents oral history in the mid-2000s.

It is essential for us today to learn the lessons of
the AJC’s successful campaign. American Jews need
to start using our brains and creativity to fight the
antisemites now threatening us on three fronts —
Islamists, white supremacists and the likes of the
“Black Hebrew Israelites.”
Just as important, the overall focus needs to be
on unity — on the beautiful mosaic of immigrants
that America once stood for. But you can’t have
that mosaic if there’s an over-emphasis on race,
whether from racists or “anti-racists.” Woke ideol-
American Jews need to start using our brains and
creativity to fight the antisemites now threatening
us on three fronts — Islamists, white supremacists
and the likes of the “Black Hebrew Israelites.”
ground, we can hear the haunting audio from Army
Chaplain Sidney Lefkowitz, a rabbi from Richmond,
Virginia, who led the service in front of 51 Jewish sol-
diers — a young private served as the cantor.

In a short address, Chaplain Lefkowitz acknowl-
edged what the service represented: “Even as we
sadly observe the ruins amid we stand and con-
sider the loss of lives with which this victory has
been purchased, we are solaced with the thought,
though the cost must be high, of the lasting memo-
rial which consecrates the sacrifice, and upon it is
written in letters that glow like burning coals, ‘The
spirit of man cannot be conquered.’”
The service, broadcast throughout Germany, was
meant as a warning. “The Allied armies, composed
of every color, faith and nationality, will never halt
until freedom takes the place of tyranny on every
inch of Axis soil,” Krents said. But it also imme-
diately captured the attention of Americans. The
response was so profound that it was later re-aired.

“The Aachen broadcast is a vivid reminder of
ogy is meant to create division — precisely the type
of division that leads to increased antisemitism.

The soldiers who attended the service at Aachen
had survived Omaha Beach, one of the bloodiest
battles of the Normandy invasion, and later fought
in the brutal Battle of Saint-Lô in France. “These
are men who belonged to a group of people that
had been deemed by the Nazis to be cowardly —
that they should be exterminated from the earth,”
said Bonelli. “They’re standing on German soil,
singing ancient Jewish prayers, equal members of
the Allied advancing forces. It was a symbol that
the war was coming to an end, and that Judaism
and the Jewish people would survive.”
It is precisely this type of symbolism, updated for
the 21st century, that needs to become a fixture on
every U.S. campus . JE
Karen Lehrman Bloch is the editor-in-chief of White
Rose Magazine. This was originally published by
Jewish Journal.




opinion
A Rock Star Channels Jewish
Outrage at Antisemitism
By Eric Fusfi eld
Sharononthemove / WikiCommons
T he antisemitic utterances of Kyrie Irving
and Ye (formerly Kanye West) prompted
condemnations from many celebrities, both those
with Jewish backgrounds and those who weren’t
Jewish but who issued solemn pledges of support
for their Jewish friends and colleagues.

Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon went
as far as to tweet, “This is a very scary time,” to
which one follower chimed in with an anti-Israel
rejoinder. Solemnity, however, unexpectedly yielded to
outrage at the annual Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame induction ceremony in Los Angeles. What
was no doubt expected to be one of the eve-
ning’s least momentous junctures, the honoring
of lawyer-agent Allen Grubman, turned into a
consciousness-raising session when rock star John
Mellencamp took the stage for a profanity-laden
introduction speech.

“Allen is Jewish, and I bring that up for one rea-
son,” Mellencamp said. “I’m a gentile, and my life
has been enriched by countless Jewish people.”
Mellencamp then turned it up a notch. “I cannot
tell you how f***ing important it is to speak out if
you’re an artist against antisemitism,” he continued.

“Here’s the trick: Silence is complicity. I’m standing
here tonight loudly and proudly with Allen, his
family and all of my Jewish friends and all of the
Jewish people of the world. F*** antisemitism!”
Whoa. What was surprising about Mellencamp’s speech
was not his principled stance, but the sheer indig-
nation and the unbottled emotion that gave voice
to it. For millions of Jews who have fearfully
observed the growing normalization of antisemitic
motifs in today’s popular culture, such a righteous
outburst was surely a welcome surprise, but it
begged a question for the entertainment industry:
“Where have you been until now?”
We sometimes temper our responses to hatred,
perhaps out of decorum, perhaps out of a sense
that there may be worse injustices that merit
greater attention and outrage. For a culture that
rightfully decries racism and off enses against other
marginalized groups, hatred and discrimination
toward Jews sometimes receive less opprobrium
than the world’s oldest and most persistent social
illness warrants.

Some of this is undoubtedly due to the popular
conception of Jews as a white, privileged group
undeserving of victim status. Another contributor is
the prevalent, but demonstrably false, notion of the
Singer-songwriter John Mellencamp
We sometimes temper our responses to hatred,
perhaps out of decorum, perhaps out of a sense
that there may be worse injustices that merit
greater attention and outrage.

Jewish state as a white, colonial settler project whose
central aim is to displace an indigenous people.

But the mainstreaming of antisemitic attitudes
plays a clear role as well. This is why the antisem-
itism and anti-Zionism of celebrities has proven so
insidious. Whether it’s in response to Mel Gibson,
John Cusack, Roger Waters, Ye, Irving and even
U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib
(D-Mich.), the objections have been somewhat
muted in proportion to the danger that antisemitic
pronouncements by celebrities presents.

Polite tweets and affi rmations of support for
the Jewish community have been the norm among
those who have registered objections. But antise-
mitic sentiments, like those expressed by Ye and
Irving, persist in the public realm.

Enter John Mellencamp. As rock music critic Greil
Marcus once wrote, rock and roll is not a “polite,
quiet, cerebral” art form. “If you’re reading a news-
paper, that music says, put it down, listen to me.”
If someone is going to deliver the passion that the
fi ght against antisemitism requires, it might as well
be a rock star, then.

At a time of rising antisemitism, Jews need allies.

Particularly helpful are allies with high visibility
who can turn the dial on the outrage machine to a
volume at which it can be heard by Jews and non-
Jews alike.

Jews are vexed, fearful and angry at the antisem-
itism that has manifested itself across the political
and social strata and injected itself into the popular
culture. On a night in Los Angeles before a national
television audience, Mellencamp channeled our
indignation and used his platform to spread it. Will
other celebrities follow? JE
Rabbi Eric Fusfi eld is B’nai B’rith International’s
director of legislative aff airs and deputy director of
its International Center for Human Rights and Public
Policy. JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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