 Posted Monday,
January 4, 1999 | |||
Anti Defamation League's 1996 Press Release on FDR, Anti-Semitism, and the Jews ADL
PUBLICATION EXAMINES LINGERING QUESTIONS New
York, NY. May 17... The worst period of
anti-Semitism in the history of the United States
coincided with the presidency of Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. What impact did the interplay
between American attitudes towards Jews in the
1930's and 1940s and decision-making by the White
House and the State Department have on the
momentous events of that time? European Jews trying
to flee the Holocaust often met half-hearted, even
callous American policies towards them. Was our
government -- and the American people --
indifferent to Jewish victims? To the
investigations of war crimes after the war? The
troubling ambivalence and apathy of this country
during the Nazi Era are the focus of the current
issue of Dimensions: A Journal of Holocaust
Studies, published by the Anti-Defamation
League Braun Center for Holocaust
Studies. Some
Jews revere FDR as a hero who welcomed minorities
into his administration, encouraged talented Jews
to enter government service, and fought for social
justice. Others revile him as the one who -- among
other questionable decisions -- appointed a zealous
anti-Semite to oversee America's refugee policy
during World War II. The contributors to this issue
of Dimensions raise questions and challenge
assumptions as they attempt to reconcile the
contradictions and complexities of this legendary
era. Leonard
Dinnerstein, author of the award-winning
Antisemitism
in America,
inquires whether President Roosevelt's professed
commitment to social justice was, in fact, a sham.
Noting FDR was highly cognizant of the public mood.
and rarely took steps to reform the nation's highly
restrictive -- and strongly anti-Jewish --
immigration policy, Professor Dinnerstein points
out that. "When he did make tentative attempts to
do so, he was rebuffed by a staunchly conservative
Congress." Historian
William L. O'Neill of Rutgers University
explores the anti-Semitism that engulfed this
country in the 1930s. noting. "Anti-Jewish hate
speech in the U.S. was widespread and routine." He
uses polls from that period to show that well over
half of all Americans identified Jews with negative
stereotypes." Delving into media coverage during
the Roosevelt Era, Robert E. Herzstein,
author of Henry
R. Luce: A Political Portrait of the Man Who
Created the American Century,
looks at how Time. Inc., "the most powerful
national enterprise in American journalism,"
covered Jews and the Holocaust. "Luce's beliefs and
way of thinking were molded by the Christian
missionary environment which had nurtured him as a
boy.... Jews, and Judaism, made Luce uneasy,"
writes Professor Herzstein. Also
examined in this ADL publication are the American
impetus for the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial and the
role of crimes against Jews in an article from the
forthcoming book by Michael R. Marrus,
The
Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. 1945-46: A Short
History with Documents.
Religion scholar Michael N. Dobkowski
investigates pragmatism, moral imperatives and the
study of history. and concludes that despite
formidable obstacles the U.S. had to overcome to
save great numbers of European Jews. "these
obstacles cannot. in the final analysis, either
fully explain or justify America's half-hearted,
even callous, refugee and rescue policies."
Dimensions includes a book review section with
reviews of several new and noteworthy books.
including An
Obsession with Anne Frank: Meyer I Levin and the
Diary,
and The
Bones of Berdichev: The Life and Fate of Vasily
Grossman. 2 12/05/96 21:33:00 | |||
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