arguing, fussing and fighting and carrying on. but if you just look at booker t. washington, and what he did for hbcus, still well over 80% of black folks are educated. you know. still where seven or eight out of every 10 doctors and lawyers are still being educated at hbcus. you know that kind of black leadership and black intelligentsia coming out of hbcus and a lot of that had to do with booker t. washington's support. i meanly, sending money their way so that they could survive all that. so you have legacies in different ways. you have one institutional legacy. and another one a legacy in terms of transforming american society for resources and opportunities. we will continue with this argument throughout the semester i am sure, and ultimately i will win. thank you so much.

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professor jonathan sarna talks about how industrialist henry ford founded and supported a newspaper which published andy jewish articles. ford's international weekly the deer born independent published an article in 1920 describing, quote, the international jew, end quote, as the world's foremost problem. the articles were later published as a series of books. this class is about an hour and 15 minutes. >> all right. good afternoon, everybody. the last time we looked broadly at the rise of hatred during world war i, and we looked at immigration restriction, which was in some ways related to that and a little bit about the ku klux klan and we spent a lot

of time on the translation of the forgery own as the protocol of the elders of zion and then we mentioned some of the anti-immigrant rhetoric connected rhetoric connected with prohibition. what i want to do today is really focus on the person who really did more than anybody else to fan the flames of anti-semetism in the 1920s and that was none other than the famous american industrialist henry ford. henry ford is a great hero to many americans. there were lots of people who wanted henry ford to run for president in 1924 but as we will see, jews i think actually for quite understandable

reasons, perceived henry ford to be an enemy. now, i trust many of you know at least something about henry ford but let's give at least a little bit of background on henry ford, who is an exceedingly interesting person. he was bornúñ÷ in a very small community, springwells township in michigan. today we would say he was good at the s.t.e.m. subjects. he was good at mathematics and engineering which in those days was mechanic, and very bad at reading and writing. he spent some little time and actually becomes a good friend of thomas edison who also was not a great lover of the jewish people and he then spends a lot of time as a young person working to create an auto

engine. in your generation, people work in their garage to make apple computers, if any of you have one of the original apple computers built in steve jobs' garage it's worth an absolute fortune, but in henry ford's day, people who were gifted worked in their sheds to make an automobile that would be cheap and that would really allow for what would become a transformation of the country. and henry ford succeeds in that. he, like lots of inventors, he has all sorts of false starts but eventually, excuse me, he creates the model t which what's important about the model -- anybody know what's important about the model t? it wasn't the very first

automobile, after all. what really was significant about ford and the model t? >> it was the first mass produced automobile. >> yeah. he's able -- it's just like jobs. apple was not the first computer by a long shot. what henry ford did is he made the automobile accessible to everyone. the price drops, he sells model ts eventually for $290, and 15 million of them were sold, much like when computers dropped below a certain price or i remember, you know, when only very wealthy people had phones, cell phones. they were enormous things you needed a whole suitcase to carry it around and people had it to show off. then cell phones got small and it was exciting to people.

henry ford, in other words, put the world on wheels and that was absolutely transformative. he's very important when you study utilization in that he didn't invent mass production but he really demonstrates what mass production can accomplish. he popularized it. mass production, there were a lot of other ideas eight hours of work, eight hours of leisure eight hours of sleep, all of -- he didn't invent that, either, but it's all part of a philosophy that becomes associated with henry ford. he uses his wealth for various social causes but the amazing thing is and this is really

where i think we'll see his interest in jews henry ford uses some of his money to restore the good old days. you might imagine that an industrialist and inventor wouldn't be so interested in the good old days, but henry ford absolutely was. so for example, he tries hard to revive square dancing. you know we wouldn't associate henry ford with that but he thinks country fiddling and square dancing was much better for america than this new-fang new-fangled music and what he considered lascivious dances that were overtaking america in the early 20th century. he doesn't believe in pasteurized milk. don't try that at home.

but he thinks the old ways of getting milk were much better. and so on and so forth. he restores farmhouses. he loves mcguffie readers. anybody know what the mcguffie reader is? anybody? none of you went to school in the 19th century. william mcguffie really produced a series of graduated readers, they were meant to introduce reading to young people and the goal, it was graduated so every grade had a different level of reading, and the reading was supposed to be at a high level and there were some illustrations and so on. many, many people who studied in the 19th century, especially in

more rural schools, used mcguffie's readers. and there are still places i gather none of you come from such places, that try and teach the mcguffie readers. there are some evangelical schools that believe that this really is the best way to teach reading and to teach kind of elevated literature. the truth of the matter is that some, maybe i will bring it in some point some of the early mcguffie readers, there are different editions contain rather anti-jewish material. there is a dispute as to whether henry ford himself studied those early readers and did that influence him. some of the bible readings selected were new testament readings that cast jews in a bad light. he wanted the mcguffie readers,

had material from the merchant of venice which cast jews in a bad light and so on. in any case whether or not it really was a central influence on ford it tells you something about him that he wanted to bring back these great old-fashioned textbooks of the good old days. that to his mind was what america needed. henry ford in 1915 is going to promote peace. some people think that he was pro-german but he certainly was a pacifist and one of the things he pays for is known as the peace ship with a jewish woman

named rosica schwimmer who is also involved in this peace ship which is supposed to sail around and promote peace during world war i. many people ridiculed the peace ship and ridiculed the kind of pacifism that it was promoting. some will argue later that ford, who quarrelled with schwimmer was later going to move from schwimmer to generalize about all jews. certainly ford was unhappy about the bad publicity that he received connected with the peace ship and all that went with it. and the reason that ford was

worried about the bad publicity was actually p.r. public relations, was absolutely central to the success of henry ford and he's one of the very early people to understand how important public relations was and some of his public relations activities are very famous. so for example in 1914 he announces and then does it and gets enormous praise that he's going to distribute profits to workers and was going to offer people who worked at ford motor company the then unheard-of sum of $5 a day. the public life of henry ford, meaning the public relations aspect of his life was quite

significant. he wanted newspapers to report favorably on him. he wanted really to be viewed in a very positive way that was very important to the company. there's a very good book by david lewis on the public life of henry ford where you can see how significant this is to ford and that may help to explain why ford eventually decides that he is going to have his own newspaper, and he purchases the deerborn independent. where is deerborn? still there. >> about 35 minutes outside detroit. >> yeah. deerborn in michigan, nearby detroit, so it was local. there was a significant ford installation in deerborn.

ford buys the deerborn independent. what's the great advantage of owning your own newspaper? it's not a hard question. >> you control what the paper says about you. >> exactly. if you want to control your own message, it's helpful to own your own newspaper, and he has another great advantage. yes, it's called the deerborn independent but it's not just for people in deerborn. what's his great advantage? how can he distribute this paper? what does he have? yeah. >> he has cars. >> he has cars. and if you want to sell cars, you need then and now -- >> advertising. >> dealerships. >> dealerships. you've got car dealerships. and they are beholden to you because they don't do what you say, you won't let them have any cars and they won't be able to sell them, won't be able to make any money. but he has a whole string of car

dealerships and all of those car dealerships now have to carry and distribute the deerborn independent. so it is going to be a much more important newspaper than you know had he just remained a very local newspaper in deerborn, and he buys the paper and sets it up, gets going in 1919. it's called the deerborn independent but honestly it wasn't independent at all. it's a free country call it whatever you like, independent but it was actually totally dependent on the ford motor company. and not surprisingly if you were to read a run of the paper, its views and the views of henry

ford are remarkably similar. that shouldn't surprise us. you know, that would be true of any newspaper that reflects the views of its owners. but the paper is very much in favor of pacifism. it likes prohibition, meaning thateíh ñ it's in favor of limiting alcohol, which ford thought was wicked. it supports all sorts of old traditions. one of the most interesting articles and the title of the article tells you a lot about the outlook of henry ford is an editorial that was entitled "the old ways were good." now, what's the irony? there is an astonishing irony.

yeah. >> ford was modernizing america he made the car and then he's saying that the old ways were better. >> yeah. exactly right. there's nobody who did more to bring new ways to america, to transform america, than henry ford in his day. the automobile was one of the most transformative inventions in the 20th century. the fact that people could travel significant distances easily was enormously important and very rapidly, horses disappeared from the streets of the city and automobiles replaced them and with a need to have highways and the like, nothing transformed america in those days more than the automobile. yes. >> do you think that henry ford

built, you know, the ford motor automobile to modernize america or was it just kind of an accident [ inaudible ]? >> oh, he certainly continued to support the automobile. he wasn't sorry that automobiles existed. i mean it's an interesting question. what you're really asking is was he aware of this irony or is it only something that we see. my sense is he's not aware of it. he's a country person. he remembered small towns. he liked small towns. it didn't occur to him that nobody had done more to change america from the old ways to the new ways than he himself. one of the lessons is that one can be a great engine of change and be totally oblivious to the

changes that one has in fact brought about. if one looks, there is a whole group in this period who are anti-modernists. we think of this era as the spread of modernity and so on but still a lot of people opposed it and ford is -- illustrates both anti-modernism and anti-urbanism. in the 20th century the city is going to become very significant and the truth is and this will be important as we turn to jews, the jews are very much associated with american cities. jews tend to be urban. but henry ford even though he

lived near a city he's really a champion of old rural america. to him, much like to thomas jefferson before him, all of american virtues were connected with rural america and he very much was opposed to the very cities where so many of his automobiles would be sold. so what's interesting to look at is that anti-semetism is going to bring together a lot of the themes that ford champions. that is to say jews to his mind are symbols of modernity are

symbols of urbanization. jews to his mind were opponents of prohibition and that was largely correct. a lot of immigrants disliked prohibition. there is a wonderful new book on the jews and the liquor trade entitled "jews and booze." very good title. "jews and booze" by marney davis which gives us the full picture of jews in the liquor trade. ford has some dim awareness of this but he certainly knows jews were opposed to prohibition and one can really see how jews begin for him to reflect the antithesis of many of the things he most believed in. not necessarily many of the things he did, but many of the things he most believed in.

now, i said earlier that writing and reading were not things that henry ford excelled in and what does that suggest about the deerborn independent, especially when you remember that this guy was simultaneously head of the ford motor company? what does it suggest? >> that [ inaudible ]. >> exactly. do not for a minute believe that henry ford did all of the writing or indeed, any of the writing for the deerborn independent. that doesn't mean he didn't oversee the writing or know about the writing. it does mean that he employed other people to do most of the writing for him. and we know quite a lot about some of the people who worked for ford. yeah. >> was it ghost writing? did they claim that it was by

him? >> i suppose you can call it ghost writing meaning that very often, these were people who wrote things in ford's name but he did not himself write them. later, ford would claim that in some cases, he didn't know what appeared in the deerborn independent. that seems quite unlikely to most people. some of the articles in the deerborn independent certainly are signed by other people, but in any case, most of the articles that are -- those that we are going to focus on in the deerborn independent were written by a man named william j. cameron c-a-m-e-r-o-n and cameron is part of a very

interesting little group called the anglo-israelites. anybody by any chance ever hear of the anglo-israelites? the anglo-israelites and remember when we talked about race in america, the anglo-israelites believed that anglo-saxons were the real heirs to the jews and the jews the people who called themselves jews were usurpers. in other words, this was a way to square a certain circle by saying that the master race is really the anglo-saxons. they are the true heirs to the jews and these pesky jews who now exist, they're not real jews at all. indeed, there is a long tradition in the 20th century of people who argue that contemporary jews are not really

heirs to those jews of the bible, that in one version they converted to judaism. there are a whole series of such stories. but the important thing was that for cameron, it was an article of really religious faith that he was the true jew and the jews he saw in america were usurpers and he believed that, as anglo-israelites did the anglo-israelites believed that there were really two people vying to be chosen people, the anglo-saxons and the jews and that it was essential for the good of civilization that which group should win? >> anglo-saxons.

>> that anglo-saxons should win. and the -- this was not the only anti-semite, a word they would not have minded. it's not just that we're imposing that word on them. some of the other people who work in the deerborn independent clearly viewed themselves as antisemites. they wouldn't have minded being known as antisemite and indeed we know that ford's own wife clara didn't like jews very much. ernest liebold another ford associate, doesn't like jews and so on. now, we reach here the 1920s. just in terms of the economics of the auto industry, the '20s

are not a very good decade for henry ford and the reason was that he was facing very significant competition. and some have argued that indeed he began searching for enemies. sometimes -- excuse me. sometimes when times are bad people search for enemies people to blame for their troubles. whether or not that is the reason it is worth remembering and it will also shape the way jews respond that these are tough times for ford. we also know and this brings us back to the protocols of the elders of zion that we looked at, that russian royalists

meaning people who supported the czar had actually brought to ford to cameron to some of these people surrounding ford, the protocols of the elders of zion and they had persuaded ford that the overthrow of the czar was all the responsibility of who? >> the jews. >> the jews. right. and that this too is part of what shapes henry ford. in any case, whatever the psychological or economic reason ford begins a series called the international jew on may the 2nd 1920. now, step back and think about

that. you have got a newspaper that is being distributed somewhere between a quarter and a half a million copies are distributed of every issue, and suddenly, it begins an expose of quote, the international jew. and when the articles are in publication, they are eventually going to be 91 of them 91 weeks of antisemitic articlesc8ñru but periodically ford claimed people asked for reprints of the series and newspaper what's the problem with newspapers, then and now?

are newspapers things people keep? >> no. >> no. you wrap fish in them and so on. so he wanted to make sure that they would be preserved. so after he produced these newspapers every few months this one has 20 articles he would gather together the newspapers and he would produce these little books. i only own two of them. there were four of them that were produced. that brought together these articles. now, i was very lucky because the copy i managed to procure included this little note which reads, to the librarian, this copy of the international jew,

the world's foremost problem, is for your reference library and reading table. please accept it with our compliments. the deerborn publishing company. now, what do we learn from this? >> that he was sending them to libraries for free and encouraging people to read them. they weren't being like requested, necessarily. >> he sent free -- he was a very wealthy man. he believed in this cause. i will pass these around. please take care of them. they are irreplaceable. but he believed that they should get maximum publicity and the way, what he did, as i said, he knew about public relations. he knew how to get it done. he sent free copies to every library in america and these

were very very cheaply produced books. why do you think he produced them cheaply? why are we interested that he produced them cheaply? but the fact that they were very cheap meant what? >> that he wanted everyone to have access to them. >> yeah. this isn't a book for the elite. anybody can afford to get the four volumes of henry ford and he's sending free copies to many many people, and in fact, every ford showroom had available these books. this will help you to understand why many jews refuse to buy ford products in those days because

the publications and the automobile were closely linked. now, i gave you out some material, just photocopies from these books. the table of contents, take a look at them and tell me, you know, what we learned. i mean, even from the very title, what do we make of this? this title? some of you have it, i would start this way. what do you make of this title? >> the international jew, it's saying it's a world problem, so it's saying that not only are jews a problem in america but jews are everywhere and everywhere they are causing havoc. >> right. it's absolutely right. the very title the international jew. and stated as a declarative. this of course does suggest

certain elements of influence in the protocols of the elders of zion but not only is it the international jew and this in 1921 is the international jew, according to the cover of the book. >> the world's foremost problem. >> the world's foremost problem. not the flu epidemic. not warfare which killed millions and millions of people. not warfare. not the arms race. not economic problems. the world's foremost problem, he declared, and he didn't put a question mark there, was the international -- was the international jew. now, take a look. i have given you i think on the

next page the preface. is there anything that you learn from this? >> i think it's really interesting that it says the jews have -- they have control over the news that america reads. >> again one of the great ironies, here's a man who is working very hard to shape coverage of himself and who has bought a newspaper and distributed it in the hundreds of %owpthousands but nevertheless, he believes that the autocratic direction of the very news that the american people read is all due to the jews. good. what else? yeah. >> in the preface he keeps

talking about the jewish question, he never says what the question is and it even makes it seem like he's creating the question. >> it's great and indeed the term the jewish question is going to be much discussed in this era, so much so you can try this. if you go to very old libraries like the boston public library, you -- harvard you will find that the jewish question was a subject matter, as if this was a real question. somebody cleverly says it's not a jewish question, it's a non-jewish question, but i don't think henry ford created the term. he did a great deal to elevate the idea that there was a jewish question all over the world, including america, and that this question which really was not so much a question as a problem,

needed to be on the agenda of the american people. anything else that people see in this? >> what exactly is the jewish question? >> well anybody? what do you think he thought was the jewish question, and think back to the protocols of the elders of zion. not so easy to define. anybody have a sense what he thought the problem was? so take a look here. buried but a very important sentence in his preface. the international jew and his satellites as the conscience -- conscious enemies of all that

anglo-saxons mean by civilization. and so as i mentioned this is anglo-israelite thinking but the jewish problem as he saw it was really that the rising number of jews, were the number of jews rising? yes. 1920s before immigration restrictions so you still had hundreds of thousands of jews coming into the country and from his perspective, and indeed from the perspective of many who viewed america in racial terms the anglo-saxons were under attack and in this case, from his perspective, this is all a

real war between anglo-saxons whom he defines as good and jews, and jews really are to blame for everything that he viewed as bad. i mean, that's what -- that's why i wanted you to take a look at the table of contents here. i have given you two. the first table of contents from volume one is the international jew, because it is talking in part about what goes on outside of the country, a jewish world problem. it is very much, as you can see, take a look at chapter ten, what is chapter ten of volume one? >> introduction to the jewish protocols. >> right. now, anybody have a sense of why

he doesn't even though wikipedia says he reprints the protocols, actually he's not reprinting the protocols. what he's done is in some ways, publicizing the protocols. why didn't he reprint the protocols? somebody say it? >> they weren't well written? >> they weren't well written. there are translations they are hard to understand, they are vague, they are generalized. this isn't going to get all sorts of people's riled up and what he does is take the protocols but actually apply them to day-to-day situations that people did know about and he would say this is an example of what the protocols are talking about.

so that many chapters will begin with the protocols and will have a line or two from the protocols, and then go further. take a look. what else do you see just looking at the contents of volume one which, as i said is the international volume. then we will move to volume two, which was jewish activities in the united states. but what kinds of things is he talking about, if you read no further, we will read further eventually but if you read not probably today but if you read no further than the table of contents, what kinds of things would you learn? michelle? >> like you said it kind of looks like the jews have their hands in everything. >> give me an example. >> including all the things that were going on in russia and as well as like the world press

magazines, you know, ruining farms, the recent world war. but i think what becomes kind of clear is a pattern and the title the international jew, it kind of like goes back to like the old -- like the old idea that jews around the world are somehow connected and somehow are in this really large conspiracy, saying like the cx%v(t&háhp &hc% international jew means that like the jews kind of are able all over to distribute these sort of plans that have been concocted. >> no, i think that's exactly right. a sense of conspiracy, a sense of world, does a definite world jewish program exist and his answer, it will not surprise you, was yes. and some sense that jews are responsible for world war i.

world war i, as time goes on is viewed as a catastrophe, as i said. everything bad is blamed on the jews, even though there was no jewish country and none of the leaders, ferdinand wasn't jewish and the czar wasn't jewish. nonetheless, as time goes on he began to argue the jews stood behind all of these people an idea very much buried in the protocols of the elders of zion and as we move down, we see the great fear connected to the red scare of that time and what are they really worried about? and here of course, it was easier to give details. what are they really worried about? >> that the jews are communists and the communists are going to overthrow america. >> good.

exactly. the fear of bolshevism as he puts it. the communists have taken over in russia. now, were there jewish communists? no question about it. undoubtedly trotzski was very famous. lenin had significant jewish roots as the new book shows. but that of course didn't mean that all jews were communists. the fact that certain number of communists were jews doesn't mean that all jews are communists. nevertheless, from the perspective of readers of the deerborn independent, here was another problem that they could blame on jews. and then we move to the second which is entitled jewish

activities in the united states. and then again take a look at the table of contents then we will go back and look at what we might learn from the preface. but let's take a look at the table of contents. just what do you learn from the table of contents? yes. >> one thing that i noticed was that he thinks that the jews have a lot more power than they probably might have at this time. >> give me an example. >> he talks about control, kind of just this overtaking of -- >> good. these words as if much is by the way, in the protocols of the elders of zion, that a real fear that jews are hiding but

secretly in control of many aspects of american and indeed world life but they are experts in doing what? take a look at the very first item, what he calls chapter 21. what are they experts in? >> [ inaudible ]. >> i'm sorry? >> [ inaudible ]. >> concealing. so now let's understand how conspiracy, this is true of all conspiracies conspiracies. there is a conspiracy theory that blames the jews. you say i don't see all these jews running things. and the answer is? it's concealed. no wonder, that's part of the conspiracy. you can't see it. can anybody negate that argument? if i do see it, jews are visible. it's jews.

if i don't see it well, they're concealed. and this is quite typical of conspiratorial claims of all kinds. the same was true of people who thought that the masons in the 19th century controlled everything or the catholics controlled it. but there is always the part that's visible and then the sense is well how can you possibly see it they're concealing it it's going on in hiding. the fact that you don't see it is itself part of the conspiracy. and that's very much the case here. what kind of a world, and this of course is what worried jews so much, they had come to america to be part of america. they didn't want to continue to

exist in a european sense where they are a separate people utterly apart. legally many times apart. what kind of a world is henry ford propagating here? >> well, he says like jewish rights clash with american rights so saying that jews aren't trying to assimilate to american culture they are trying to -- i know he writes this, form their like -- meld american culture into#rfyt what they want it to be so they can't exist in the america that exists so they have to tear it apart. >> right. either it's a battle of jews versus non-jews which is jew versus non-jew in new york finance chapter or indeed, as michelle says, he believes jews want to change america and that means that he's got an answer

for why america had shifted all of these innovations and indeed, take a look in the middle here. what's another innovation that he doesn't like? >> movies? >> movies. they're obscene, they're portraying wicked values. by the way, movies have been portraying wicked values since the beginning of movies in this country. but who is to blame for that? jews. so whatever -- now that's not to say that jews have no -- this is really before hollywood has taken over the film industry, but there were jews in the film industry. but he suddenly is able to blame jews for yet another element that he doesn't like and what makes this so very frightening,

much more frightening in some ways than the protocols of the elders of zion because the protocols of the elders of zion are so vague. what's going on here? >> he's showing specifics. >> he's offering specifics. and people can read those specifics and say oh the specifics are right the generalization must be right. that's always a danger when you generalize from an example just because so and so is a jew, certainly doesn't mean that all jews are like so and so. but very much the argument that he puts through, that he puts through here and as we go down here, you can see that he's worried about what's being taught in the schools.

again, the sense, and that brings us back to mcguffie, that the public schools are no longer teaching the old values that they should preach and used to preach, and did preach when he studied back when he was growing up. instead, because of jews, that the school curriculum is being changed. and again, very much talking about the jewish question. let's take a look just at the preface here. because he does something quite interesting that again is quite

common in conspiratorial writing. take a look at the second paragraph especially. what's going on there? yeah. >> it looks like people have tried -- jewish people probably have tried to refute the articles but he's defending his own articles saying they haven't shown any facts to refute them. >> if we were in a debate here -- >> i think he places more suspicion on them because they refute it, saying that makes them more suspicious than they were. >> again it's a kind of can't win. this is a tactic a tactic used in debate. i don't know if any of you ever studied debate. but what's going on here?

what are you trying to do in terms of debating tactics here? in this paragraph? the articles thus far printed remain unanswered. they have been denounced and misrepresented but not answered. a favorite evasion of jewish editors is to say that the statements made about the jews could be made about any other race, and that no race could refute the statements with facts. but these statements have not been made about other race and could they be. so what's going on here? as a tactic? so what you're trying to do is really disarm opponents in advance by saying oh, they're going to say a b, c and d and

then of course when they say it, well that's just what we said you would say. so again in many ways, it made it impossible to respond and he talks about unanswered and then of course, there were many answers but how does he define those answers? second sentence. they're not answers, they are what? >> evasions. >> they're evasions they're deannunciations, they're misrepresentations. obviously the people who made them didn't view them that way. so you want to be aware, this is very common in propaganda and we will see it again where people will try hard to prevent

responses by in a sense telling you in advance what the opposition will say in the hopes that then they will be disarmed from saying so. and that's very much what is going on here. it is of course very interesting that jews are defined here as a separate race. we have talked about that. this is an era where jews often were seen as a race apart, much as the hungarians, the poles, the romanians scots, irish and so on and it is the case some of the jewish language skewed it but others were prepared to accept race. yeah. >> i was wondering if any jews

read the international jew and thought, they weren't observant or religious and thought some jews were like this. >> i'm not sure the issue really was religious. nerd in other words, i'm not sure someone would read this and say religious jews were like this, non-religious jews are like this. what's the whole essence of race? >> it's everyone. doesn't matter how much -- >> it's in your genes. right. it doesn't much matter whether you are religious or irreligious. but the question$;jpu ask is a very important one, which is how do you respond to this and actually the american jewish community had a very difficult time with that question. what would you do? if we called a meeting, if a very famous person started

issuing anti-semetic articles a whole series that were widely publicized, what would be some of the possibilities in terms of responding? what would be some of the arguments? we talked about this the very beginning of the course, some of the ways of responding to anti-semetism. if you don't remember, what kinds of things might one do? >> well, we discussed in the beginning how like when the whole grant cases where the jews went straight to the government. >> okay. some people might have argued let's try and shut down this newspaper. let's try and prevent hate speed, which is whatspeed

speech, which is what this is, from being distributed. in some ways it brings up a very contemporary question all over the world. how should one deal with hate speech? what do some countries feel about hate speech? yeah. >> in certain countries, holocaust denial is illegal. >> in some countries, forms of hate speech are illegal. actually, in egypt, any criticism of the government now recently was considered hate speech and banned. what about in america? what's the problem? >> first amendment. >> right. so the notion of a free press and free speech has made it difficult to ban hate speech. how did louie brandeis think one should respond to hate speech?

anybody know? his idea was that the proper response was more speech. that basically you responded with, with speech. but that is not -- there was a significant dispute in jewish circles and i want to come back. if you had been there, what are some of the things you might have said? what might one do in the face of hate speech? yeah? >> well, i mean it's kind of cowardly but just kind of well you know i think this happened a lot, they forgot they were jewish and ignored their judaism. >> let's ignore him. silence. and indeed, jacob schiff, who was probably the leading american jew of that time

wealthy, proud, he was really at the end of his life but jacob schiff was very nervous about taking on an industrialist like henry ford, who was a hero who some people thought should be president, and his sense was maybe let's not do anything. let's ignore it. if we give it publicity it will only make it -- >> worse. >> -- worse. said he. and that was a very powerful voice. not to respond do you think everybody agreed with that? why not? what's the problem with not responding? yeah. >> it's hard to just sit there and take it, and also, if you don't refute it, that's kind of saying like yeah, that's true. >> exactly.

not to respond is to suggest that i can't respond, so naturally, there were people very unhappy and you can certainly see in jewish newspapers and elsewhere various kinds of responses, actually although they don't quite mention henry ford by name the american jewish yearbook devotes a whole issue of the yearbook to responding to charges that really began with henry ford everything from the idea that jews are dishonest because on the day of atonement at the first service of yom kippur,

they say all their vows are not vows and this was taken to be oh, well, they admit it. and so the yearbook writes a long article about what it's really about and so on. really about, and so on. and, and various, and you have jewish responses to communism. so what's the problem which the yearbook admits? how many americans do you think read the american-jewish yearbook? not so many, yes, it was in many libraries, but they that really was, i think written for the jews you were talking about who didn't know how to answer who may be -- really uncertain. but many jews said, you know

henry ford's allies are not people who are simply missing mismisinformed and once we give them the truth they'll change their ways. this was an organized group opposed to jews and so what other options do people have? >> i know a lot of people boycotted. >> so then you had, you know, let's really make them pay for this. this is hatred against the group. let's respond, there is a danger there which is what, what has henry ford been saying about jews? >> they're controlling everything. >> they're controlled. they're a group they're a distant, and if you stage a boycott, that almost sounds like you're playing into his hands on the other hand, there were plenty of people who said i'm not going to give any of my

money to this man, indeed there were some jewish dealers of henry ford, meaning ford dealers who were jewish who gave up selling fords and so and many jews who would not, who would not purchase. yeah? >> moum jews that were -- how many jews were not buying fords, did it really affect the profits? were there enough people who weren't buying? >> it's a very hard question to answer. in other words and the reason it's a hard question to answer is there were lots of reasons why people were buying other cars in the '20s. you know, first of all they were car makers who offered you choices of colors. henry ford famously said in the

beginning you can have any color you want as long as it was black. and mass production the whole point of mass production was we made every car the same way. so how many of the people who didn't buy fords weren't buying fords because they decided chrysler or general motors or whatever were, were better cars more to their liking? and how many of them were specifically trying to hurt ford in the pocketbook? that's a little hard to know. there are some indications that some of the people around ford did believe that, as we move on in time that the antismetic campaign was actually a great drag on the company a diversion from selling cars.

most don't say you're a danger to america. that's not the best way of selling goods to people. you try and make them feel good and welcome and important and so on. that tends to be a more successful way of selling goods. but i don't think anybody can absolutely put a number on, you know, what what it meant. but what do you think all of this material, how do you think it actually affected jews? i mean imagine that you're living in that period of time and one of the most famous and

most respected men in america, i mean he's like gates or jobs today, someone who changed america, everybody respects his worth, billions and billions of dollars who made their lives easier, and henry ford has come out against the jews. how do you think the jewish community felt in the '20s? >> not safe or happy. just because everything in in these writings like everything can be attributed to jews, so if jews are involved with anything, it's kind of like you said it's a d ñwin-win, it's a lose-lose if they're involved in it then they are, you know helping to keep up these ideas, but if they are involved then for a lot of these things they aren't making a living because apparently the

jews had control over every sort of option. >> no, absolutely right. the jewish community in the '20s was deeply nervous. that's always a hard thing to prove. i will try in another class to bring in some material that suggests how unhappy and nervous they were. but, it's not hard to imagine here is a man regularly publishingpublish publishing attacks. what made it so difficult and hard to respond to was that so many of the attacks followed the system that yes, the pieces of evidence may actually be right about a particular jew but the generalization from the particular to the general was

really where the mistake was. and nevertheless a lot of people were prepared to generalize from the individual who was being described to to to the general. now, there were people who really felt that one had to fight henry ford. some wanted to fight him. and as we will see, that does eventually happen. eventually one of the people who ford writes about sues him. and that's going to have a big impact. there were others some of them are not easy to document, but

there is this report that that william fox that's it the 20th century fox that's william fox who was in hollywood threatened that he would make films about accidents with the model t. and that would scare everybody away from the model t. whether it's actually so or not, i can't tell you. brothers syncly would attack ford, ignorant ford may be a good inventor, but he really doesn't know what he's talking about in these areas. and so on.

chicago a tribune, called him 1922 ignorant idealist and ford sued for a million dollars. that was a lot of money even more than he stole a lot of money, but it was much more money in those days that for defamation. they actually put him on the stand and the lawyer asked him a lot of questions. and it turned out he was kind of ignorant of lots of things. and ford was eventually awarded six cents of damages and that was deeply embarrassing to henry ford. and obviously people who didn't like ford, you know, were very happy. also i think explains a ford

after that experience in 1922, he never wanted to appear on the stand again. i don't know if any of you have had the misfortune of being on the stand it's easy to be made by the other side to look rather foolish, rather hard if you're not practiced to look great but anyway, they had a very easy time. of course truly he was not a man of broad intellect. that's why he was able to fall through all sorts of conspiracy theories. there is no particular reason why a genius industrialist who is also a genius at creating mass produced cars you know, necessarily an expert on all world affairs. that's a complete fallacy. anymore than anyone that's an expert on all world affairs who would imagine that he'd necessarily be a good inventor. i have no idea if henry

kissinger can knock in a nail or cannot knock in a nail. nobody would expect he could do that. it was a bit strange to think that just because somebody is a great industrialist you must be a world famous expert on everything. now there are very unusual moments in the whole ford affair. one of the most unusual was when henry ford in the midst of printing these articles sent a gift as he regularly did top detroit's famous reform rabbi, rabbi franklin, leo franklin well in the middle of a whole series of anti-semitic articles what do you think he did when he got a free car from