[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 109 (Tuesday, August 9, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               THE DECLINE AND FALL OF U.S. ANTISEMITISM

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, recently, I had the opportunity to 
read a book by Leonard Dinnerstein, ``Antisemitism in America.''
  Reading it, you have a sense of how far we have come. For example, as 
late as 1877 someone was denied admission to the New York Bar because 
he was Jewish. Recently, the Jerusalem Post had an interview with him 
in an article written by Matt Nesvisky that gives a sense of 
perspective to all of this. The heading of the story is ``The Decline 
and Fall of U.S. Antisemitism.''
  I would not agree with inclusion of the words ``and fall'' in the 
heading of the article, and I am not sure Leonard Dinnerstein would. 
What is clear is that there has been a great decline, and the nation is 
richer for that decline.
  Sometimes we get excessively pessimistic about the problems of 
prejudice in our country and from time to time we have to learn that 
progress is possible.
  I ask to insert the Jerusalem Post article in the Congressional 
Record at this point.
  The article follows:

                       [From the Jerusalem Post]

               The Decline and Fall of U.S. Antisemitism

                           (By Matt Nesvisky)

       Some Zionists still entertain the notion that antisemitism 
     will drive large numbers of American Jews to Israel some day. 
     ``It's not going to happen,'' asserts Leonard Dinnerstein.
       ``Of course,'' Dinnerstein continues, ``no one can predict 
     the future with perfect accuracy. But based on what I've 
     documented, antisemitism in the US has clearly declined. It 
     has not disappeared, but has become so minuscule as to be 
     virtually irrelevant.
       ``Jews are incredibly secure in the United States, and I 
     see no reason whatsoever why that should change.''
       If Leonard Dinnerstein is especially emphatic on this 
     point, it is because he believes he has the evidence to back 
     it up. Dinnerstein, a 64-year-old professor of American 
     history at the University of Arizona, has just published that 
     evidence in a book entitled Antisemitism in America (Oxford 
     University Press, 369 pp., $25), and his conclusions may 
     dismay not only many Israelis, but many American Jews and 
     Christians.
       ``The fact is,'' says the ebullient, Bronx-born professor, 
     ``a lot of American Jews just aren't ready to accept just how 
     well-accepted they are. On the one hand, they may have 
     personal experience that they insist doesn't square with what 
     I describe in my book. And I say, `OK, there's no denying 
     your personal experience. I can only point to what I've 
     documented.'
       ``On the other hand, you have Jewish defense organizations 
     that in their efforts to combat antisemitism tend to magnify 
     the problem. The Anti-Defamation League, for example, 
     compiles an annual audit of antisemitic incidents in America. 
     Let's say they report 2,000 incidents in a particular year. 
     That might alarm many American Jews. But what are we looking 
     at? That's a few incidents a day emanating from a population 
     of 270 million Americans. All that says to me is that 
     99.99999% of American Gentiles don't engage in antisemitic 
     acts. It means antisemitism is just a tiny blip on the 
     American consciousness.''
       Dinnerstein laughs. ``Eighteen months ago, Abe Foxman, 
     director of the ADL, publicly condemned me for what he called 
     my minimizing of antisemitism in America. Then he read my 
     book. Now there's a flattering endorsement from him on the 
     back cover.
       ``Don't misunderstand me,'' Dinnerstein warns. 
     ``Antisemitic attitudes certainly remain, but antisemitic 
     actions are at an all-time low.
       ``The truth is, most American Jews today simply have never 
     experienced antisemitism. We live wherever we want, go to 
     school wherever we want, work wherever we want, vacation 
     wherever we want. At one time there were severe restrictions 
     on American Jews in all of those areas. No more.
       ``Should American Jews remain vigilant? Of course. Jews 
     have 2,000 years of history that show antisemitism in every 
     century and every land. But they should also recognize the 
     present reality: Jews in America are accepted.''
       THIS, OF COURSE, was not always the case, as Dinnerstein's 
     book amply demonstrates.
       In the colonial period, Jews were largely tolerated, if 
     only because, as whites, they were helping to established the 
     Europeans' foothold on the new continent. Jews of that era 
     readily intermarried with Gentiles, not only foreshadowing a 
     trend that would alarm Jews in our era but indicating back 
     then an unusual degree of acceptance by these new American 
     folk.
       But despite all the rhetoric about religious freedom in the 
     New World, Jews were perceived as heathens who had yet to see 
     the light. William Penn--founder of Philadelphia, the City of 
     Brotherly Love--implored Jews to recognize the ``error of 
     their ways,'' and accept Jesus.
       John Quincy Adams held less-tender views. After visiting an 
     Amsterdam synagogue in 1780--45 years before he became 
     president--he wrote in his diary that Jews ``are all wretched 
     creatures, for I think I never saw in my life such a set of 
     miserable-looking people, and would steal your eyes out of 
     your head if they possibly could.''
       It was Adams' view that more or less prevailed among 
     Americans. Dinnerstein points out that even after the 
     Revolutionary War, Jews were still legally denied the right 
     to vote.
       It wasn't until the Civil War, in fact, that any sizable 
     amount of antisemitism manifested itself in the New World. 
     Southerners widely suspected Jews of Northern loyalties, and 
     vice versa, and if both sides agreed on very little, they 
     still agreed that Jews managed to avoid service in their 
     respective armies.
       After the war, antipathy toward Jews receded. But following 
     antisemitic developments in Europe, it was revived in the 
     latter part of the 19th century. The hatred grew even more 
     intense as the great waves of immigration began to break 
     against the shores of America at the end of the 1800s.
       Yet Dinnerstein, who earlier wrote a book on immigration to 
     the US, points out that Jews were hardly alone in drawing 
     fire from native-born Americans. Virtually all immigrants, 
     especially those from Southern and Eastern Europe, were 
     unwelcome. For generations, anti-Catholic prejudice among 
     Americans was as strong, if not stronger, then antisemitism.
       ``America,'' Dinnerstein says, ``was founded as a 
     Protestant country by European Protestants, who carried all 
     their prejudices to the New World. The society was built the 
     way the majority wanted it. And for all the diversity in the 
     country today, those Protestant cultural attitudes prevail.''
       Still, Jews were singled out for a special purgatory, often 
     as a result of the efforts of thoroughly dedicated 
     antisemites. Among these was Henry Ford. During the Red Scare 
     of the 1920s, Ford widely circulated The Protocols of the 
     Elders of Zion. Moreover, his Detroit newspaper, The Dearborn 
     Independent, editorialized against ``the international Jew'' 
     for 91 consecutive weeks. (Hitler praised Ford in Mein Kampf, 
     and reportedly kept a photo of the automobile manufacturer in 
     his office.)
       As in earlier periods of economic difficulty, the Jews were 
     scapegoated during the Great Depression. At this time another 
     ``outstanding'' antisemite, ``radio priest'' Father Charles 
     Coughlin, led the charge. By now, antisemitism was reaching 
     unprecedented levels. Hatred of Jews continued to grow 
     through World War II, which antisemites naturally blamed on 
     the Jews.
       After the war, however, antisemitism promptly began to 
     decline, Dinnerstein maintains, and it has declined steadily 
     ever since.
       In his hotel room a few blocks from the White House, 
     Dinnerstein ticks off the reasons for the modern American 
     acceptance of the Jews.
       ``First of all,'' he says, ``after the war, there was a lot 
     of guilt about the Jews, as the facts of the Holocaust became 
     known. And as a result, the establishment of Israel earned 
     Jews a lot of sympathy, admiration and respect.
       ``Beyond that, Americans were busy rebuilding their lives. 
     And soon they were busy enjoying prosperity. Little 
     interfered with that.
       ``Then came the civil-rights movement of the 1950s and 
     1960s. If any minority was drawing attention, it was the 
     African-Americans, not the Jews. Eventually, the government 
     would put great resources into promoting fair treatment for 
     all. Prejudices would of course remain, but the Civil Rights 
     Acts and the like had their effect.
       ``I also don't minimize the impact of Jewish defense 
     organizations. For various reasons they had been largely 
     ineffective during World War II. Now, they were aggressive in 
     combating prejudice and in changing attitudes and behavior. 
     So for all these reasons, things like university quotas on 
     Jews or restricted resorts and neighborhoods became history.
       ``But the primary reason for the decline of antisemitism in 
     America is the lessening influence of Christianity,'' 
     Dinnerstein asserts. ``The great engine of antisemitism, 
     after all, has always been Christian doctrine. Americans are 
     less devoted to their churches, and their doctrine has been 
     radically modified.''
       ``Today, the catechism no longer teaches: `Who killed 
     Christ? The wicked Jews. Can Jews be forgiven? Not until they 
     accept the grace of Jesus.' Books used in Sunday schools have 
     similarly changed. And if children don't imbibe it, a 
     prejudice won't take hold.
       ``You know, at one time the Mother Goose rhymes included. 
     `Jack sold his egg to a rogue and a Jew, who cheated him out 
     of half of his due.' Presenting that sort of thing to a kid 
     in America now is unthinkable.
       ``And the evidence speaks for itself. A lot of Jews here 
     thought the oil crisis of 1973 would engender a wave of 
     antisemitism. It didn't happen. A few years back, we had 
     those stockmarket scandals involving Jews like Michael Milken 
     and Ivan Boesky. Many Jews thought that was going to inspire 
     a wave of antisemitism. Again it didn't happen. We had 
     Jonathan Pollard arrested as a spy. Jews feared pogroms. They 
     didn't occur.''
       So, does antisemitism figure in the consciousness of Jews 
     more prominently than it does in the minds of Gentiles?
       Dinnerstein nods, then jerks his thumb over his shoulder 
     toward the White House. ``Consider that Clinton has done 
     something that no president has ever dared to before. He 
     named two Jews to the Supreme Court. Was their Jewishness an 
     issue? Ruth Bader Ginsberg was discussed as a woman--no one 
     discussed her Jewishness. And Judge Breyer? His Jewishness, 
     likewise, was never even mentioned. For the mass of Gentiles 
     in this country, it just isn't an issue.
       ``But of course, the ultimate proof of the acceptance of 
     Jews in this country is intermarriage. You have to consider 
     what an intermarriage rate of over 50% means. For Jews, it 
     may be something to worry about, although with an 
     intermarriage in virtually every Jewish family these days, 
     it's hardly a shock anymore.
       ``The point is, however, what it means for Gentiles. It 
     means Jews are acceptable as marriage partners, as family 
     members. It means Gentiles aren't afraid of losing status by 
     marrying Jews. It means they don't fear being ostracized or 
     that their kids will be ostracized.''
       Dinnerstein shrugs off the question of whether this is good 
     for the Jews. ``It's inevitable,'' he says. ``I'm a scholar 
     in immigration, and the data show that after the fourth 
     generation, immigrants to this country by and large are fully 
     integrated. Even Japanese-Americans have an intermarriage 
     rate of over 50%.
       ``You know, at one time people used to marry people from 
     the neighborhood. Now they don't even have neighborhoods. You 
     have little ethnic enclaves here and there, but to the vast 
     majority of Americans, that ethnic heritage has little hold. 
     The American experience is one of amalgamation, 
     homogenization. Yes, in the bosom of their families, many 
     Gentiles still harbor anti-Jewish sentiments. But the 
     incidence of anti-Jewish activity is almost nil.
       ``So some stupid teenager daubs a swastika on a synagogue. 
     I do not see that as evidence of a surge of neo-Nazism. An 
     awful lot of churches are vandalized, too. You don't hear 
     about waves of anti-Methodism or anti-Lutheranism. Anyone who 
     asserts that Jews are insecure or uncomfortable in America 
     just isn't looking at the evidence.''
       The one exception to this cheery picture, Dinnerstein 
     admits, is black antisemitism. But he finds nothing 
     surprising in the phenomenon.
       ``For one thing, it isn't new,'' he says. ``Evidence of 
     antisemitism among African-Americans can be found just about 
     as far back as one can research. And the source was the same 
     as it was for most whites--Protestant doctrine, in this case, 
     Southern fundamentalist Christianity. And that still has a 
     strong hold on the African-American imagination, even when 
     the hatred is articulated by the Nation of Islam.
       ``Like other people, they want a scapegoat for their 
     troubles. Some no doubt even think they'll win favor with the 
     white majority by demonizing a common antagonist. Only the 
     white society today no more tolerates African-American 
     antisemitism than the Jews do.
       ``I also don't believe it's any coincidence that 
     antisemitism is given voice most prominently in America these 
     days by the one minority group that remains most excluded 
     from the mainstream. Color prejudice, after all, is the 
     hardest sort to overcome.''
       But what about the theory that antisemitism is a useful, if 
     messy, glue for holding the Jewish community together?
       ``I believe there's a lot of truth in that,'' Dinnerstein 
     says. ``If antisemitism should disappear altogether--which of 
     course I'm not predicting--it would certainly weaken the 
     Jewish community. The evidence is clear that when Jews 
     perceive themselves as accepted, they more into the 
     community, they assimilate. And when they perceive 
     antisemitism as strong, they tend to stick together.''
       Dinnerstein again shrugs his burly shoulders. ``So OK,'' he 
     says with a smile, ``maybe American Jews should worry more 
     about tolerance than about antisemitism. But I'm just a 
     historian. That's not for me to decide.''

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