Report on Anti-Semitism
ROY, RALPH L.
Report on Anti-Semitism Cross-Currents. By Arnold Forster and Benjamin Epstein. Doubleday. 382 pp. $4.00. Reviewed by Ralph L. Roy Author, "Apostles of Discord"; consultant, Fund for the...
...Another group openly favors the position of the American Friends of the Middle East an organization castigated in Cross-Currents with undue severity...
...One distinguished group, representing many diverse political, theological and denominational factions, supports the pro-Israel American Christian Palestine Committee...
...Thousands of persons of all faiths benefit annually from valuable materials and individual contacts sponsored by the ADL in the interests of religious brotherhood...
...The writing technique is another commendable feature of the volume...
...One wonders, however, whether it is in the best interests of Jewish-Gentile relations for the ADL to undertake this task...
...Under the first heading, Forster and Epstein consider four main subjects: the attacks on Eisenhower, the Fort Monmouth investigations, the Chasanow case, and "the reactionaries...
...Having said this, I feel obliged to raise two questions: 1. Are Forster and Epstein wise in directing their fire at reactionaries as well as at proven anti-Semites...
...Certainly antagonism to Israel has become so intermixed with anti-Semitism that distinction between the two sentiments is not effectively made by Arabs and some of their American friends...
...Among the groups singled out for special condemnation are For America, the anti-UN Congress of Freedom, and the unsucessful McCarthy defense effort known as Ten Million Americans Mobilizing for Justice...
...Their logic in this matter is outlined in Cross-Currents...
...Cross-Currents is an exceedingly valuable volume...
...Like its several predecessors, it exposes to public view a large number of personalities and movements which deliberately foster hatred of Jews...
...The authors wisely chose the anti-Eisenhower crusade for the first chapter, thus lending an air of nonpartisanship to a book otherwise characterized by a vigorous liberal tone...
...This has resulted, in part, from the Vatican's firm insistence on the internationalization of Jerusalem...
...Moreover, this initial chapter shows the casual reader and the uninitiated how wholly disreputable the anti-Semitic underworld is...
...If we interpret this published report correctly, the ADL believes it has a responsibility to attack "reactionaries" and give wholehearted endorsement to political Zionism...
...These two queries bring us to a more basic question which we would also raise in this review, without attempting an adequate answer...
...The material appears to be well documented, even though footnotes are not used...
...These attacks increased with Eisenhower's inauguration and with such subsequent events as McCarthy's collapse, the Geneva Conference, and gains in the area of civil rights...
...Benjamin R. Epstein is the ADL's National Director, while Arnold Forster is the agency's general counsel and director of its Civil Rights Division...
...The AFME has the support of such prominent clergymen as Harry Emerson Fosdick and the pastors of both President Eisenhower (Edward L. R. Elson) and Adlai Stevenson (Robert G. Andrus...
...The last six chapters of the volume the section which received widespread publicity in the daily press document the relationship of anti-Semitism to much of the organized opposition to Israel...
...2. Do Forster and Epstein demonstrate sufficient toleration of diverse opinions on the Zionist issue...
...Nonetheless...
...The fact is...
...Bitterness was also directed at men around the President, notably Dulles, Lodge, Stassen and Brownell...
...Should the Anti-Defamation League go beyond its work toward Jewish-Gentile understanding and advance specific political views...
...While this omission severely undermines its usefulness, Cross-Currents, as a whole, makes a significant contribution to the battle against religious prejudice...
...The stories it tells are reconstructed largely from memoranda taken from ADL files and arranged in proper chronological order...
...of course, that many leading Roman Catholics and Protestants who are not pro-Israel are neither anti-Semitic knaves nor soft-headed dupes...
...Especially cogent are the sections on Fort Monmouth, the Chasanow story, and the role of Nazism in Germany today...
...The two men collaborated on The Troublemakers, the last such published report, which appeared in 1952...
...The sordid details of the fruitless attempts of hatemongers to drench the 1952 GOP convention with anti-Semitic material aimed at smearing Eisenhower and nominating MacArthur are recounted here...
...Cross-Currents clearly proves that there has been considerable interchange between professional haters and Arab propagandists...
...The actual material in Cross-Currents provides the book with its principal strength...
...Zionism is a legitimate issue, and United States policy toward Israel, like other questions of foreign affairs, should be a matter for free public debate without fear of misunderstanding...
...The Roman Catholic press is relatively oblivious to international affairs generally, but when it has spoken out (as in John Cogley's 1954 Commonweal series) its weight has almost always been on the side of the Arabs...
...consultant, Fund for the Republic Cross-Currents is the Anti-Defamation League's 1956 report on anti-Semitism, designed for popular reading...
...The 382-page volume discusses organized anti-Jewish activities in America, Germany and the Near East...
...The authors view their reactionary targets as "unable or unwilling to recognize the bigot among those joining their movements...
...Protestants are somewhat more vocal, but less united, on the issue...
...The final section involves a lengthy examination of anti-Semitism as it relates to the Israeli-Arab dispute...
...Cross-Currents unwittingly conveys the impression that there is something either bigoted or ignorant about persons who hold non-Zionist or anti-Zionist attitudes...
...There is one wholly inexcusable fault in the book's formal: It has no index...
...In this literature, the Republican candidate was described as "Ike the Kike, the Swedish Jew...
...German developments include an appraisal of the current influence of Nazism in the Bonn Republic and its ties with this country...
...These ultra-conservative groups merit repudiation for their ornery and antiquated views...
...To many, it will come as a shock to read of these attacks on the President's person and administration...
...This cooperation could suffer if the ADL became too closely identified with political causes...
...In this fashion, the readers follow the story as it unfolds and a sense of suspense frequently is created...
...To discuss these reactionaries in a book designed to expose anti-Semitism may be both unwise and unfair...
...It rightly expresses concern that tension in the Near East can be used to promote anti-Semitism in this country and elsewhere around the world...
Vol. 39 • April 1956 • No. 14
