24 | JULY 11 • 2024
J
N
D
uring his Depression-
era run as one of the
country’s most popu-
lar radio personalities, Father
Charles Coughlin spread
antisemitic conspiracy the-
ories, praised fascists and
suggested Jews deserved the
horrors of Nazi persecution.
Now, nine decades later,
his church is officially
declaring him an antisem-
ite — and educating visitors
about his legacy of hate.
Following renewed interest
in Coughlin and two years of
discussions with local Jewish
figures, the National Shrine
of the Little Flower in Royal
Oak has changed the way it
memorializes its founder,
whose large national follow-
ing helped pay for its con-
struction.
Previously, official histo-
ries at the Catholic parish
seat stated that Coughlin’s
“political involvement and
passionate rhetoric opened
him up to accusations of
antisemitism.” The new
version, posted on both the
church’s website and on an
updated plaque on the Shrine
grounds, is far more direct,
stating clearly that Coughlin
himself propagated antisem-
itism.
“His political involvement
and passionate rhetoric
gradually became overt-
ly anti-Semitic,” the new
passage reads, with the
updated plaque in the church
now including a QR code
to a page on the Shrine’s
website. Titled “Legacy of
Anti-Semitism,” the page
discusses Coughlin’s record
of antisemitic comments
in the late 1930s in more
detail, including his national
distribution of the notorious
antisemitic forgery Protocols
of the Elders of Zion, which
purports to be a secret plan
for Jewish world domination.
Housed in a historic Art
Deco building, the Shrine
will be celebrating its
100th anniversary in 2026.
But almost 60 years after
Coughlin’s retirement, many
members of the church
community had never heard
of him or his legacy among
Jews.
Detroit’s Jews, many of
whom live within a few miles
of the church, have peti-
tioned the Shrine for years
to better acknowledge its
painful history. For them, the
change was significant.
“It’s a total victory,” Levi
Smith, vice president of a
local foundation devoted
to the historical legacy of
Detroit Jewish architect
Albert Kahn, told the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency. Smith
said he helped work with the
church on the new language,
“and I made a couple of new
friends, which was really
nice.”
Don Erwin, a Shrine
parishioner who also worked
on the revised language,
said he was “thrilled” that
the changes were made. “I
think it’s very important
that the Shrine deals with
the antisemitism of Father
Coughlin,” he said. “It’s such
a legacy that we really hav-
en’t dealt with.”
In recent years, pod-
casts, documentaries and
new histories of the time
period have made note of
the similarities between
Coughlin’s brand of fascist
populism and modern
political figures’ reach
on social media. And the
Shrine has taken steps to
grapple with Coughlin’s
antisemitism.
In 2020, the Shrine’s
then-head pastor took the
opportunity of his New Year’s
Eve sermon to apologize
for Coughlin’s words and
actions toward the Jews.
And, in 2022, Smith and
other local Jewish historians
Father Coughlin’s
Church Will Now
Teach Visitors About
His Antisemitism
ANDREW LAPIN JTA
OUR COMMUNITY
COURTESY OF LEVI SMITH
Rev. John Bettin, head
pastor at the National
Shrine of the Little Flower
Catholic parish, prepares
to mount a revised version
of the church’s history of
its antisemitic founder
Father Charles Coughlin.
Royal Oak, Michigan, Nov.
7, 2023.
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