46 | MAY 21 • 2020 

Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History

accessible at www.djnfoundation.org

The Oldest Form of Hate
L

ast month, the JN
launched “The Anti-
Semitism Project,” a 
yearlong inquiry and analysis 
of one of the world’
s old-
est prejudices. It is a social 
problem that 
has not been 
eradicated. At 
one time, there 
was hope that 
anti-Semitism 
would fade away. 
In 1884, the first 
edition of the 
Oxford English 
Dictionary even excluded 
“anti-Semitism” because it was 
thought that the word would 
have a very short shelf life. It 
can be found in any English 
dictionary today.
Anti-Semitism is certain-
ly not as rampant as it was 
during certain historical eras 
like the 1930s. But, just as one 
begins to perceive a dramatic 
drop in anti-Semitic thought 
and practice, the bias against 
Jews rises again. 
We are in the midst of 
another swell of anti-Sem-
itism as we witness its rise 
in Europe, continued hatred 
of Jews in the Middle East, 
shootings at synagogues in the 
United State, BDS on college 
campuses and Nazi symbols 
freely displayed at recent pro-
tests in Lansing and Chicago, 
to name just a few indicators.
I certainly want to do 
my part to support the JN’
s 
project. So, I explored the 
discussions and reports of 
anti-Semitism that might be 
found in the historic pages of 
the Detroit Jewish Chronicle

and the Detroit Jewish News in 
the William Davidson Digital 
Archive of Jewish Detroit 
History. 
The term appears on a 
whopping 26,426 pages in 
the Archive. Anti-Semitism 
was mentioned in the first 
issue of the Chronicle on 
March 3, 1916, and in the first 
issue of the JN on March 27, 
1942. Indeed, anti-Semitism 
is mentioned, discussed or 
reported upon on about 8% 
of all Chronicle and JN pages 
over the years. If the pages 
that were entirely devoted 
to advertisements were left 
out of this calculation, the 
percentage of those including 
reference to anti-Semitism 
would be much higher. In 
short, anti-Semitism was, 
and still is, a critical topic of 
interest to Detroit’
s Jewish 
community.
The ebb and flow of 
anti-Semitism is well doc-
umented in the Davidson 
Archive. Stories in Detroit’
s 
Jewish newspapers are 
wide-ranging and fascinating, 
as well as sobering, disgusting 
and/or sad. For example, see 
the item in the June 23, 1916, 
issue of the Chronicle: “Anti-
Semitism in the National 
Guard.” Or 100 years later, 
see the commentaries in the 
JN on Aug. 3, 2017: “Special 
Envoy Needed to Combat 
Anti-Semitism” or in the 
Feb. 15, 2018, issue: “Today’
s 
Anti-Semitism.” In between 
those dates, there is a story 
in the March 30, 1945, issue 
of the Chronicle that cited 
the National Commander of 

Jewish War Veterans, who 
warned about “The Threat 
of Political Anti-Semitism.” 
And many, many more.
Abe Foxman, for-
mer longtime national 
director of the Anti-
Defamation League, 
spoke in Detroit on 
Nov. 20, 2019, and 
noted that anti-Semitism “is 
a virus without an antidote 
or a vaccine. It serves so 
many masters for so many 
reasons.” 
Unfortunately, the fight 
against anti-Semitism must 
still be waged. The Davidson 
Archive holds proof that the 
JN has, and always will, do its 
best to be part of the solution.
First, the study of 
anti-Semitism is not an exact 
science and, second, it has no 
one single cause. 

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN 

Foundation archives, available for free 

at www.djnfoundation.org.

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