Jack Schwartz Quotes

Ernestine Louise Polowsky

In 1933, there was still a some of anti-Semitism in America. The persecution of Jews in Germany was very clear at the time, just from the statements and writings by Adolf Hitler and other high level government officials and the laws that they were instituting and proposing. McFadden was one of the extreme isolationists in Congress at the time. They knew very little of the rest of the world, and believed the false assurances provided by German officials and American anti-Semitic, Fascist, pro Nazi partisans. McFadden’s statement was not only contrary to fact, but is among the most naïve of Congressional speeches.

The large Jewish immigration to America was like most immigrations before and since. Some elements of American society thought the immigrants undesirable and worse. Others felt America needed immigrant labor to grow and do the undesirable chores of society. Still others saw immigration to America as a part of American destiny. Herzl’s understanding of America was superficial and the anti-Semitism that many Jews faced dominated his thinking on the subject.

Some bigots blamed the Jews for the Black Plague, then rampant. This is documentation of the Pope’s intercession to protect Jews. Pope Benedict XII, ?-1342, was an enlightened and moral leader who did not share the superstitions of many and realized that something was transmitting the disease. See {611790} for his behavior. The graphic is of the Pope.

Toleration is a relative term. The Muslim Moors made Christians (and Jews) pay a special tax. At times they were forced to wear special clothing so that they could be readily identified. And they could not build churches larger or taller than the smallest mosque in the community. At times, their occupations were restricted but at other times Christians and Jews were appointed to the highest positions like Vizier. The Inquisition, in contrast, forced all Muslims (and Jews) to leave the country without any of their property or money or be tortured and killed—usually by burning at the stake unless of course that they converted to Christianity.

She was a brilliant woman who was well ahead of her time in many respects. But her rigid adherence to socialism and communism distorted her view of a number of things. This was one. Pogroms were occasions where the Czarist Russian Cossacks or other gangs of hooligans were “allowed” and often encouraged to attack Jewish farms, villages and stores. They looted the property, raped and murdered many of the people, and often ethnically cleansed areas. Rosa was thrilled by the Russian Revolution and assumed that something as uncivilized as Pogroms and anti-Semitism would never take place in the coming communist society of Russia. As a German Jew, although there was a terrible history from the Dark and Middle Ages of German Pogroms and ant-Semitism, Germany of 1917 was too civilized and modern to ever have attacks on Jews. She completely underestimated what the politicians of Russia and Germany would do to control their societies and pander to some while scapegoating and murdering Jews and other minorities. She herself was murdered by a German fascist anti-Semite 2 years after this statement.

Vladimir Lenin. Despite Lenin’s abhorrence of anti-Semitism, there were any other Russians for whom it was normal. After Lenin’s death, Stalin and his henchmen used anti-Semitism to divert attention from the Communist Party’s failure to meet its economic and other goals.

Constantine the Great. Roman Emperors saw Christians as their most dangerous foes. However, Constantine converted to Christianity and ceased the vicious persecution of the Christians. As politicians in many societies need scapegoats to blame for various problems, and the Christians were no longer available, the Jews then became the targeted scapegoats.