AUGUST 6 • 2020 | 9

F

ifteen years ago, my 
family spent a leisurely 
Sunday at the Henry Ford 
Museum in Dearborn, perus-
ing the incredible Americana 
available to enjoy 
and experience. 
As we took the 
time to sit in the 
Rosa Parks bus, 
which sits in 
the museum on 
permanent dis-
play, I noticed an 
African American family sitting 
near us. I turned to my wife 
and quipped, “If Henry Ford 
knew that a Jewish family was 
sitting together with an African 
American family in the Rosa 
Parks bus in the museum that 
carried his name, he would be 
rolling in his grave.
”
My wife responded with a 
bitter smirk as she recognized 
the accuracy of my painful joke. 
But in truth, it was and is pain-
ful, and it was not funny. Rather 
than try and sweep Henry Ford’
s 
virulent racism and antisemi-
tism under the rug, it is time to 
confront that history head-on.
Henry Ford wasn’
t just an 
incredibly successful entrepre-
neur and industrialist. He was 
a virulent racist and antisem-
ite. He not only believed and 
spewed hateful rhetoric about 
Blacks and Jews; he bought a 
newspaper and over the course 
of several years promoted the 
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 
blaming the Jews for a myriad 
of evils that they ostensibly per-
petrated around the globe.
As historian Hasia Diner 
explains, Ford was able to pro-

mote his hatred not 
only in Dearborn, but 
throughout every Ford 
dealership around the 
country. Due to his 
status and popularity, 
his antisemitism carried 
great influence across 
American culture.
Moreover, Ford’
s venom 
had chilling, deadly real-world 
consequences. Ford served as a 
role model to no less than Adolf 
Hitler, who mentioned Ford 
favorably in his Mein Kampf, kept 
a life-sized portrait of Ford in 
his office in Munich and consid-
ered Ford an “inspiration.
”
In 1938, as the Nazis were 
preparing to unleash their 
armies on Europe, which ulti-
mately killed tens of millions of 
souls, the Nazi regime awarded 
Henry Ford with the Grand 
Cross of the German Eagle, 
the highest honor it could 
bestow upon a non-German. 
Testifying at the Nuremberg 
trials after World War II, con-
victed Hitler Youth leader 
Baldur von Schirach — who, in 
his role as military governor of 
Vienna, deported 65,000 Jews 
to camps in Poland — stated: 
“The decisive antisemitic book 
I was reading and the book that 
influenced my comrades was 
... that book by Henry Ford, 
The International Jew. I read it 
and became antisemitic. The 
book made a great influence on 
myself and my friends because 
we saw in Henry Ford the repre-
sentative of success and also the 
representative of a progressive 
social policy.
”
Moreover, Ford’
s vocal hatred 
had a chilling effect on the 
millions of American Jews who 
undoubtedly felt threatened by 

Ford’
s hatred and did very little 
to lobby the U.S. government 
to stop the mass extinction of 
European Jewry at the hands 
of the Nazis. Professor Diner 
explained, “Their sense of what 
they could do was tempered by 
the knowledge of how pervasive 
antisemitism was in America. If 
somebody like Henry Ford, with 
such power and such wealth, 
could be such an outspoken 
antisemite … there’
s really a 
limit to what we can do.
”
There’
s no way to know how 
many Jews, Roma, gays and 
other civilians perished at the 
hands of the Nazi regime as a 
result of Henry Ford’
s hatred. 
But a number in the tens of 
thousands — if not the hun-
dreds of thousands — would be 
a conservative estimate.
Even the Henry Ford 
Museum’
s website seems to 
equivocate about Ford’
s tar-
nished past. The page that 
acknowledges Ford’
s antisemi-
tism describes it as a “complex” 
story: 
 “Seen within the context 
of the times, they demonstrate 
the sharp realities and tensions 
that emerge in societies under-
going profound cultural, eco-
nomic and political change.
”
In other words, we have to 
view Henry Ford as a product 
of his time and understand the 
“sharp realities” that led to his 
hatred of Jews.
No, we don’
t. Not any longer.
The global events of the last 

month have prompted 
many around the world 
to reevaluate the venera-
tion of historical figures 
who may have achieved 
great accomplishments, 
but whose legacy was tar-
nished by hatred and rac-
ism. Princeton University 
recently announced that it 
would remove the name 
of President Woodrow 
Wilson from its school of 
public policy and a resi-
dential college. Princeton 
stated that, “We have taken 
this extraordinary step 
because we believe that 
Wilson’
s racist thinking and pol-
icies make him an inappropriate 
namesake for a school whose 
scholars, students and alumni 
must be firmly committed to 
combating the scourge of racism 
in all its forms.
”
I do not minimize the great 
contributions of the Ford fam-
ily to the United States and its 
decades-long effort to distance 
itself from the hatred of the 
family patriarch. But today, 
good works are not enough. 
Henry Ford’
s virulent hatred 
is too damning to allow us to 
overlook any longer.
The Henry Ford Museum 
must take immediate action to:
• Change the name of the 
museum to the Ford 
Museum, removing the name 
of its namesake.
• Remove the statue that stands 
proudly today at the entrance 
to Greenfield Village.
• Construct a permanent dis-
play at the museum catalog-
ing Ford’
s antisemitism and 
racism, bringing the truth of 
Ford’
s history into the light 
of day.
If modern society is indeed 
committed to combatting the 
scourge of racism in all forms, 
that commitment must apply to 
antisemitism as well. Telling the 
true, full history of Henry Ford 
will be an important first step. 

Reuven Spolter served as the rabbi of 
Young Israel of Oak Park until 2008. 

essay
It’s Time to Truly
Face the Hatred
of Henry Ford

Reuven 
Spolter