A merica "elvish Periodical Cotter

CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, OHIO

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

July 210940

A CREDO FOR AN AMERICAN JEW

Questions Raised by Edmond Taylor's "The
Strategy of Terror"

By HENRY MONTOR

In the face of successive con-
quests by Hitlerism, paralysis of
will and defeatism of spirit have
become chronic among Jews. Ex-
pressions of pity which have ema-
nated from American Jews view-
ing the plight of other Jews
abroad have not, however, been
based on an identification of in-
terest. It is still fair to assume
that a majority of American Jews
finds the disaster overwhelming
European Jewry more intimate
but no more instructive than that
of the Finns, Poles or French.
Hungary may decree that its
Jew s shall not read 'other than
Hebrew or Yiddish { books. The
Grand Rabbi of Rumania may
have to apologize publicly for the
welcome accorded Russian troops
by Rumanian Jews recalling po-
gromists. France may agree that
German exiles shall be restored
to the jurisdiction of her con-
queror. Holland may demand the
registration of Jews.
all i But, by
and large, Jews living in Amer-
ica are convinced that there can
be no, or at the most only a re-
mote, parallel between the sap-
ping of the status of the Jews in
Europe and the problem which
may have to be solved in their
own country.

Aim to Divide Gentiles

Edmond Taylor in "The Strat-
egy of Terror" (Houghton, Miff-
lin Co.) has sounded some warn-
ings whose siren clarity should
penetrate even the deaf. Taylor,
formerly chief correspondent in
Paris of the Chicago Tribune, has
summed up the pre- and post-
Munich period, carrying his book
of impressions and analysis into
the ninth month of the war. Es-
sentially, he has tried to descrbie
the importance of propaganda, as
distinct from military weapons,
in winning the war. Sympathetic
to the civilization now being de-
fended by England, Taylor is
nevertheless objective in his esti-
mate of the effectiveness of the
techniques invoked by the Ger-
mans as well as by the English.
He has not tried to defend a
viewpoint but realistiaclly to ap-
praise results.
In demoralizing the enemy, in
making a people distrust its lead-
, ership and its government, in
creating a sense of futility and
defeat even before the armed
forces have entered, the German
agents, Taylor points out, know
"from experience the peculiar ef-
fectiveness of anti-Semitism as
a social dissolvent." Another ob-
servation along these lines: "
the Nazis were encouraging anti-
Semitism propaganda outside of
Germany, not so much to do in
the Jews but simply to get the
Gentiles fighting among them-
selves over the Jewish question."

Non-Cohesiv e U. S. Jewry

A series of questions arise in-
ferentially out of the points made
by Edmond Taylor. Are the Jews
united as a people? Should they
be united? Is anti-Semitism a
real menace in America? What
can or should the Jews do about
it? Does the outcome of the pres-
ent war affect the Jewish people?
S. hould they express their interest
in that outcome?
No one can be familiar with
the American Jewish scene and
contend that American Jews are
united. On the contrary, there is
less cohesion than evel. before.
Mutual disrespect among leaders
has not yet been fully recognized
among the rank and file but its
corrosive effects are already in
evidence in many directions. Ed-
mond Taylor, in describing the
French scene in the frenzied days
before Munich, remarks that the
Jewish Communists were belli-
cists and the Jewish bankers were
for appeasement. The same social
and economic cleavages are ap-
parent among American Jews
and with equal potentialities for
disaster.
The unwillingness of many
Jews to be denominated Jews is
still the insuperable obstacle to
unity. The Communists insist
that they are part of the inter-
national family. Those on the
economic and social right are
equally insistent that their faith
is either accidental or unimpor-
tant. Both ignore the objective
of Hitlerism.

Unitin g for Defense

In this present war, all peoples

invaded by Germany are suffer-
ing: economically, through loss
of freedom, through regimenta-
tion. The French peasant may

mourn for the sovereignity of
France, but he will still plow his
fields. The Jew, however, wheth-
er he be in Denmark, Norway,
France, Poland, Austria, Czecho-
slovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Hol-
land or Belgium, has neither the
spiritual right to mourn nor the
physical right to work. That is
the essential difference between
the fate of the Jew and all others
falling victims to Hitler.
Until Jewish leaders in Amer-
ica are uniformly prepared to
forswear their pre-1933 concep-
tion of the status of the Jew in
the world they cannot be united
and cannot be an effective force
in protecting the interests of
those Jews in America who are
still prepared to call themselves
Jews and protect themselves ac-
cordingly.
That Jews in America ought to
be united in a common defense
of their interests is admitted by
all those who have seen the de-
structive effect of disunity in
Europe; by all except those who
think that anti-Semitism is a
plague which visits only certain
types of Jews: perhaps only those
who wear beards or have accents
or dress ostentatiously or use the
wrong cutlery or have the temer-
ity to express their social and
economic convictions publicly.
Without a real unity among
American Jews, defensive meas-
ures on their behalf are, at best,
conflicting; at worst, mutually
cancelling. At the present time,
defense of the Jewish position is
determined by the social and eco-
fiomic views of the particular
group of people administering the
program, instead of being guided
by the actual physical safety re-
quirements of all Jews regardless
of their ideologies.

end the Legal Chronicle

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Without unity, without a com- of Jews. Therefore, Jews ha\re an
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ism is a potent force which may bers of a humane world.
(Copyright
•
S.A.F.S.,
1940)
be as destructive to the Jew in
America as in any other land, and
Simplicity, of all things, is the
without the abandonment of so- hardest to be copied.—Steele.
cial and political criteria by
which to plan the defense of the
Jews in America, it does not seem
possible that American Jews can
do anything to meet the tide
which is sweeping toward them
from the east.
There may still be Jews who
think that Hitler can be pacified
and appeased. But, in the main,
Jews are convinced that the out-
Anti-Semitism in U. S.
Either because they think it come of the war has a direct
is good propaganda or because bearing on their destiny. A
they are genuinely convinced of strange notion is prevalent that
its validity, many Jews still con- Jews should not indicate their
tend that anti-Semitism is not a interest in that war. Proponents
real menace in America. The re- of the "quiet" principle seem to
cent decision of a jury in Brook- think that there is a relationship
lyn freeing virtually all the men between what Jews think and
caught by the F. B. I. in an anti- say and what other Americans
American plot; the immediate think and say about the war. In
hailing by Father Coughlin of the first place, it is those who
the decision as a stimulant to label themselves most truculently
as "Americans" who are usually
anti-Semitism in the United
States; the increasing use by the ones to deny Jews the funda-
German elements of anti-Semit- mental American right that every
ism as the lens through which the citizen has to express his opinion.
There is no reason why Henry
European War should be judged
—all these facts and symptoms Morgenthau does not have an
equal right with Frank Knox to
are disregarded or dismissed.
say publicly, continuously and
There is a striking revelation
by Edmond Taylor on American staunchly that he would like
Great Britain to win. In the sec-
anti-Semitism. At the time his ond place, advocates of the
book was written, John O'Don-
nell, one of the most important "hush" system are apparently ob-
tuse to the fundamental social,
correspondents of the New York psychological and political factors
Daily News (he has now returned involved. Many of the Irish in
to Washington), was in France.
America want America to stay
Taylor writes that he " . . . got out of the war because in their
furious at O'Donnell because he vindictiveness to their ancestral
talked with such complacency of enemy, England, they want Ger-
the anti-Semitic movement in the many to win. These Irish do not
United States, claimed Farley told care a hang about what Jews in
him it would be the biggest po- America think. They do not see
litical issue in the 1940 cam- the farcical inconsistency of
paign."
their espousal of the cause of
But even if it is agreed that Germany because of their hatred
anti-Semitism is a menacing force of Britain and of the insistence
in America, there is less unani- of some of them that American
mity as to the procedure by Jews should not publicly favor
which it is to be combatted. Cer- Great Britain.
tain traditional forms—polite, ob-
What is the war all about?
scure, tentative, haphazard —
which were regarded as effective Taylor sums up: " . . . if the
in a less violent age—are still in Allies win the war Europe may
use. But frankness is not one or may not become a more pleas-
of the virtues of this counter- ant place to live in, but if they
propaganda. Some of the reasons lose it the world is certainly
for this can be understood. There and very quickly going to be-
is an unwillingness to drive cer- come a much more unpleasant
tain half-anti-Semites into full place to live in. But there is
hatred by publicly pillorying something more important than
them. Also there is the desire to saving Europe. It is to make sure
avoid giving currency to the that in watching Europe's strug-
hatreds of certain public men or gles, death-struggles possibly, we
less well-known individuals for do not lose our own souls. Let
fear that strength might be given us intervene or not intervene,
In the Advance Selling
to their prejudices. Edmond Tay- but above all let us not pretend
lor also points to the boomerang to ourselves that the affair does
quality of some propagandas, es- not concern us; let us not prosti-
pecially in relation to the Jews. tute the facts to justify our in-
In the same way that people to- difference. Because our indiffer-
day decline to believe horror ence is not real and not natural;
propaganda becuse it was exag- it is the hangover from the moral
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