Harry Truman, Anti-Semite?
Dannel Schwartz for conceiving the
idea of a rabbinic CPE program five
years ago. They worked tirelessly
through the Michigan Board of
Rabbis to get the program started.
The program's dynamic nature is a
tribute to their foresight and tenacity.
• The Jewish Hospice and
Chaplaincy Network and Rabbi
Freedman for administering the pro-
gram.
• The Jewish Fund for generously
providing the resources to make this
program happen.
• The Jewish News for its ongoing
coverage, even accompanying us to a
conference in New York last spring.
• Dr. Urias Beverly for guiding us
with a firm, yet loving hand. He is a
true gift to Detroit; the Jewish com-
munity is fortunate he has allied
himself with us.
Finally, a word of thanks to my
colleagues who have toiled with me
in the vineyards of CPE. Coming
from Flint, I didn't know most of the
others when we started three years
ago.
Today, we are all close friends. I
know I can rely on them for help and
counsel whenever I need it. They will
have a special place in my heart for
the rest of my life.
❑
ly available, and the main language is
Hebrew. But for hard-core anti-Israel
and anti-Semitic constituencies, Jewish
sovereignty is simply unacceptable.
Another excuse used in the attempt
to justify rejection of Jewish sovereign-
ty is based on the difficulties this poses
for the Arab minority. However, by
the same token, Islam's status as
Egypt's official religion should be nul-
lified by the presence of a substantial
Coptic Christian minority, and similar
situations exist in Syria and other for-
mally Muslim countries.
When President Bush pulled back
the curtain at Aqaba by talking explic-
itly about recognition of Israel as a
Jewish state, he exposed this elaborate
ruse. Bush and his advisors understand
what the Clinton and Peres-Beilin
teams failed to consider — that no
peace plan can and will go anywhere
without acceptance of Jewish sover-
eignty. In order to avoid a repetition of
the Oslo disaster, any peace roadmap
must begin with a plan to end
Palestinian and Arab rejectionism.
❑
New York City
he National Archives has
just released a newly-dis-
covered diary kept by
Truman, which includes an
extremely harsh passage about Jews.
The diary entry is dated July 21,
1947 — a little more than two years
since Franklin Roosevelt had died dur-
ing his fourth term in office, but
before Truman, who was FDR's vice
president, had won the presidency on
his own.
Former Treasury Secretary Henry
Morgenthau Jr. had just spoken with
President Truman about the plight of
Holocaust survivors —apparently the
passengers of the S.S. Exodus — whom
the British had turned away from
Palestine's shores and sent back to
Europe. Morgenthau hoped Truman
would press the British on the matter.
Truman wrote in his diary: "He
[had] no business, whatever to call me.
The Jews have no sense of proportion
nor do they have any judgment on
world affairs. Henry brought a thou-
sand Jews to New York on a supposed-
ly temporary basis and they stayed."
T
Token Group
The "thousand Jews" to whom
Truman referred was the one token
group of Jewish refugees whom the
Roosevelt administration had permit-
ted to enter the United States, outside
the immigration quotas, during the
Holocaust. Yes, Morgenthau and oth-
ers who urged admission of those
refugees had said they could be sent
back to Europe after the war —but it
was Truman who, in December 1945,
approved their permanent admission
to the United States. Truman recog-
nized that it was unthinkable to force
the refugees back to their native lands,
where the Nazis had murdered their
families and destroyed their homes
and communities.
As we now know about FDR him-
self, Truman also had shown very little
"sense of proportion" over the plight
of Europe's Jews when they were being
slaughtered during the Holocaust.
When a Missouri rabbi wrote to then-
Senator Truman in 1943 to urge
Congressional action to rescue
Rafael Medoff is director of the David
S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust
Studies, which focuses on issues related to
America's response to the Holocaust. His
e-mail address is
rafaelmedoff@aol. corn
refugees, Truman coldly
In matters concerning
replied: "I do not think it is
Jewish survival, Truman often
the business of Senators who
substituted rhetoric for action.
are not on the Foreign
He urged the British to admit
Relations Committee to dab-
100,000 Holocaust survivors
ble in matters which affect our
to Palestine — but never took
relations with the Allies at this
concrete steps to pressure
time ... it is of vital impor-
London to do so. He
tance that the Jewish
DR. RAFAEL endorsed the admission of
Congregations be patient and
Holocaust survivors to the
MEDOFF
support wholeheartedly the
United
States — but remained
. Special
foreign policy of our govern-
silent
as
the DP legislation was
Commentary
ment."
neutered. He granted diplo-
Truman's newly discovered
matic recognition to the State
1947 diary entry continues:
of Israel just minutes after the state
"The Jews, I find, are very, very self-
was created — but refused to send
ish. They care not how many
Israel weapons to defend itself against
Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles,
five invading Arab armies.
Yugoslays or Greeks get murdered or
Truman's rhetoric was tied to his
mistreated as D[isplaced] P[ersons] as
political strategy. He was interested in
long as the Jews get special treatment.
helping the Democrats in the 1945
Yet when they have power, physical,
election for governor of New York, the
financial or political, neither Hitler
1946 midterm Congressional elec-
nor Stalin has anything on them for
tions, and, of course, his own election
cruelty or mistreatment to the under
campaign in 1948. His rhetoric
dog.
reflected the bare minimum necessary
"Put an underdog on top and it
to make a positive impression on
makes no difference whether his name Jewish voters.
is Russian, Jewish, Negro,
Management, Labor, Mormon, Baptist
Popular Perceptions
he goes haywire. I've found very, very
few who remember their past condi-
The symbolism of Truman's dramatic
tion when prosperity comes."
recognition of newborn Israel did
This passage indicates Truman had
indeed leave a deep impression on
little or no appreciation that the vic-
American Jewry and, to this day, the
timization of the Jews had indeed
popular perception of Truman as
been unique. Estonians and Latvians
Israel's savior has endured.
had experienced the 'normal' discom-
This is so despite earlier revelations
forts and dislocations of war. The
about Truman's anti-Jewish prejudices.
Jews, by contrast, had been singled out
Prof. Michael Cohen's 1991 compre-
for mass murder, and 6 million had
hensive study, Truman and Israel, pre-
been annihilated in gas chambers and
viously revealed many additional
machine-gun massacres — with the
examples of Truman's bigotry —
active collaboration of more than a
Truman had privately described New
few Estonians and Latvians, in fact.
York City as a "kike town," referred to
his Jewish friend and business partner,
Eddie Jacobson, as his "Jew clerk," and
Insensitive Stance
wrote to his wife, Bess, about someone
Truman's position on postwar admis-
in a poker game who had "screamed
sion of Holocaust survivors to the
like a Jewish merchant."
United States was equally insensitive.
In June 1945, Truman wrote in a
In 1947, Jewish organizations lobbied
private memorandum: "The Jews
for legislation to bring in 400,000
claim God Almighty picked 'ern out
Displaced Persons over four years. But
for special privilege. Well, I'm sure He
Catholic groups and Congressional
had better judgment. Fact is I never
opponents of large-scale Jewish immi-
thought God picked any favorites."
gration cut it to two years, required 30
And there were many other such
percent of the immigrants to be agri-
remarks.
cultural workers, and required 40 per-
The new Truman diary passage is
cent to come from Soviet-annexed
consistent with what we know of a
countries such as Estonia and Latvia.
man who, despite his personal friend-
The result: a bill that would help
ship with several Jews and recognition
relatively few Jewish DPs.
of Israel, harbored deep anti-Jewish
Truman refused to intervene. After
prejudices and was largely indifferent
Congress passed the bill, he issued a
to the Nazi and Arab victimizations of
token statement criticizing it, but
the Jewish people. ❑
signed it into law anyway.
7/18
2003
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