July 11, 2024 • 28 mins
Before the American Revolution, Sephardic Jews like Aaron Lopez found economic opportunity and religious freedom in Newport, Rhode Island, but not full citizenship, nor the right to vote. What promise did an independent United States hold for American Jews and their hope that President George Washington would preside over a new nation that “to bigotry gives no sanction?”
Featuring: Yair Rosenberg
Narrated by Mark Oppenheimer
Written by John Turner and Lincoln Mullen
This series is made possible with support from the Henry Luce Foundation and the David Bruce Smith Foundation.
Antisemitism, U.S.A. is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mark Oppenheimer (00:00):
Support for Antisemitism, U.S.A. comes from
the Henry Luce Foundation andthe David Bruce Smith
Foundation.
Squirrel Hill is one of theoldest Jewish neighborhoods in
the United States. It's inPittsburgh, and historically
(00:23):
it's been about a third Jewishgive or take. There's a Jewish
Community Center there areJewish businesses and
synagogues. It's a beautifulcommunity to be part of. It was
also the scene of a horrificattack against Jews. Robert
(00:44):
Bowers hated immigrants, and hebelieved that Jews were
encouraging immigration. And onShabbat morning, Saturday,
October 27, 2018, Bowers enteredthe Tree of Life synagogue. Now,
inside that building, there werethree different congregations
worshiping in different areas.There was Tree of Life, main
(01:08):
congregation, and then twoothers that rented space Dor
Hadash and New Light. Bowersshot and killed 11 People from
among all three congregations.Their names were Daniel Stein,
Joyce Feinberg, RichardGottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry
(01:29):
Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal,David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon.
Sylvan Simon, Melvin Wax, andIrving Younger. The youngest
person murdered was 54 yearsold. The oldest was 97. It was
the deadliest attack on Jews inAmerican history. Five years
(01:55):
later, in August of 2023, afederal court found Bowers
guilty of all 11 deaths, and hewas sentenced to death.
(02:15):
After events like the Tree ofLife shootings in Pittsburgh, or
the Unite the Right rally inCharlottesville, Virginia, or
after the October 7 Hamasattacks, Americans often talk
about antisemitism in the UStoday, as if it were something
new, something without ahistory. politicians and pundits
and just normal everyday Jewsexpress dismay, but they also
(02:38):
express surprise. They say wheredid this come from? But
antisemitism in the US is notnew. It has a history, a long
history, a history that'scomplex and often at odds with
itself. It's a history that iseasy to overlook. Now, in a
certain sense, Americans andeven American Jews haven't been
(03:00):
interested in that history. Welike to believe that this
country has always been good forthe Jews. And there are good
reasons for that belief.Antisemitism in the US has never
been deadly. The way that antiJewish violence in Europe or
North Africa or the Middle Easthas been really, really deadly.
You can make a pretty goodargument that in no country
(03:22):
except maybe Israel, have Jewsbeen freer than in the United
States - free from violence,free from bigotry free from
hatred, compared with basicallyevery other land in the world in
the past 2000 years, the UnitedStates has been the promised
land for Jews. But there hasbeen antisemitism here since
before the nation's founding.There has been religious
(03:43):
bigotry. There's been racializedhatred directed toward Jews and
conspiracy theories andstereotypes. And we have to talk
about it. I'm Mark Oppenheimer,and this is Antisemitism,
U.S.A., a podcast about thehistory of antisemitism in the
United States. Episode One, NoSanction to Bigotry.
(04:13):
Let's turn back to that 2018massacre in Squirrel Hill. And
look at the motives of theshooter. Because Robert Bowers,
his motives are a clue to whatanti-semitism is and what it's
been throughout Americanhistory. A simple definition of
anti- semitism is hatred ofJews. But the gunman at Tree of
(04:33):
Life hated Jews in thatsynagogue for a very specific
reason. Robert Bowers believedthat immigrants from South
America arriving in the US wouldbe violent toward white people.
And crucially, he believed thatJews were engaged in a secret
conspiracy to encourageimmigrants to replace white
Americans. Now one of thecongregations inside that
(04:55):
building Dor Hadash hadpartnered with HIAS the Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society to sponsora national refugee Shabbat, a
Sabbath day in honor ofrefugees, there was nothing
secretive or conspiratorialabout it. These Jews did support
immigrants, not to replace orkill white people, but to
welcome them.
(05:16):
But that's not how Bowers sawit.
Shortly before the shooting, hewrote that HIAS quote, likes to
bring invaders, meaningimmigrants, in that kill our
people. I can't sit by and watchmy people get slaughtered, screw
your optics I'm going in. Hemeant going into the synagogue
to shoot Jews. Antisemitism is aconvenient hatred. It's
(05:40):
something to reach for anytimesomeone is angry about the world
and needs some group to blame.Wherever hatred or
conspiratorial thinkingflourishes, you can probably
find antisemitism flourishingtoo. Here's Yair Rosenberg, a
staff writer at The Atlanticmagazine, who covers politics
and religion, and writes a lotabout contemporary antisemitism.
Yair Rosenberg (06:03):
Most people conceive of anti-semitism as a
personal prejudice, like manyothers, which means that a bigot
despises Jews, because they'redifferent, just as they might
despise other people who aredifferent whether they're too
black, too Muslim or too Jewish.And antisemitism absolutely is a
personal prejudice. But it'salso something else. It's a
(06:26):
conspiracy theory about how theworld works that posits sinister
string pulling Jews behind thescenes who are behind social and
political problems. And thatkind of antisemitism is less
well understood, because it'snot how many other prejudices
operate. But it's also the kindof antisemitism that if you
scratch beneath the surface, isthe sort that is more dangerous
(06:49):
and tends to get Jews killed,including today, you'll look at
recent anti-semitic attacks onAmerican soil, whether it's the
massacre at Pittsburgh's Tree ofLife synagogue, or the shooting
at a kosher supermarket inJersey City just a few years
ago, or the hostage situation inColleyville, Texas, where an
(07:10):
entire congregation was heldhostage for much of the Jewish
Sabbath. In all of these cases,the perpetrators had completely
different backgrounds. InPittsburgh, it was a white
supremacist, in Jersey City, itwas people who were sympathetic
to the Black Hebrew Israelitemovement. And then in
Colleyville, Texas, it wasMuslim extremists from Britain.
(07:31):
Ostensibly, these things have noconnection to each other. But if
you look at the ideology of allthe perpetrators, they all acted
because they believed that Jewscontrolled American society,
were responsible for itsproblems, and you know it had
outsized influence over it. Thewhite supremacist attacked the
synagogue because he thoughtthat Jews were responsible for
(07:53):
flooding the country with thebrown people that he hated as
part of what he called the greatreplacement of the white race.
The Black Hebrew Israelitesympathizers, who attacked the
kosher supermarket, one of themhad written on social media
about how the Jews controlledthe government. And the Islamic
extremist who held thatsynagogue hostage in Texas did
(08:13):
so because he thought thatAmerican Rabbis held sway over
America's authorities and couldget somebody released from
prison nearby. So all of thesevery dangerous and deadly
antisemitic attacks wereactually motivated by this
conspiracy theory of Jewishcontrol.
Mark Oppenheimer (08:33):
Conspiratorial thinking is powerful, and
antisemitism is an old andvirulent form of conspiratorial
thinking. People have beenbelieving conspiracy theories
about Jews for at least amillennia. In the United States,
conspiracy thinking didn't evenbecome the dominant form of
anti-semitism until the early20th century. For that we can
(08:53):
blame Henry Ford of the FordMotor Company. In addition to
giving the world affordableautomobiles produced on an
assembly line, he alsopopularized a deadly conspiracy
theory based on a Russian hoaxin the early 20th century. And
since that time, conspiratorialthinking has been the main form
of anti-semitism in the US. Andwe'll get back to Henry Ford and
(09:16):
his role in this. But there areother strains of anti-semitism.
And over the course of thisseries, we'll explore the ways
that Jews were systematicallydenied citizenship rights in
colonial America, and in manyplaces after the American
Revolution. We'll talk about howChristian missionaries attempted
to convert Jews. We'll talkabout laws that made it
difficult for Jews to practicetheir religion. We'll explain
(09:39):
how Jews were kept out of eliteHotels and Resorts. We'll talk
about the rise of scientificracism in the 19th century.
We'll see how conspiracytheories infected the general
population and even parts of theUS government. We will examine
how the government failed tohelp Jewish refugees before,
during, and after the Holocaust.And we will talk about the rise
(10:02):
of anti-Zionism and how it canserve as a thin veneer over
anti-semitism. And we'll talkabout the recent rise of white
supremacist anti semitism in thecontemporary United States. By
most any measure anti-semitismis on the rise in the US,
(10:22):
according to a survey by theAnti Defamation League in 2022
1/5 of Americans holdextensively anti semitic views.
And we'll dig into that data ina later episode. For now, what
matters is that this is thehighest percentage that the ADL
has seen in many years. Whitesupremacists and Neo Nazis have
grown in strength andsignificance. So too has anti
(10:45):
semitic vandalism in publicschools and on synagogue walls.
Everyday instances of antisemitic slurs or low level
violence and harassment of Jewshave also grown significantly.
Public figures from politiciansto celebrities routinely bring
up anti semitic ideas. Jews areharassed on college campuses.
Where did this all come from?
(11:07):
We'll dive in after the break.
Aaron Lopez and his family hadgotten used to adapting. The
(11:31):
Lopez's were Sephardic Jews fromPortugal. They were conversos,
Jews who had outwardly convertedto Catholicism, but had
privately maintained theirJewish identity and practice.
Under threat from the PortugueseInquisition, the family started
emigrating to the Britishcolonies around 1740. Prior to
this moment, Aaron Lopez wasn'tcalled Aaron Lopez. He was known
as Duarte or Edward Lopez. Butwhen he emigrated, he adopted a
(11:55):
Jewish name Aaron. He was alsocircumcised at the age of 20. In
the early 1750s, Aaron Lopezsettled in Newport, Rhode
Island. In the colonies, hecould be a new man, a Jewish
man, and as it came to pass arich man. In fact, Lopez became
Newport's richest man. At onepoint he paid twice as much in
(12:17):
taxes as the next wealthiest manin the city. He traded in soap,
candles made from sperm whaleoil, and slaves. In a
partnership with his father inlaw, he backed ships that
forcibly brought hundreds ofenslaved men, women and children
from Africa to the Caribbean andSouth Carolina. Now, there's an
anti semitic canard out therethat it was primarily Jews who
(12:39):
were responsible for the slavetrade. That is far from the
truth. Jewish merchants in fact,played a pretty small role. But
trading and human beings was onething that made Lopez and his
family rich. He also ownedslaves himself. Lopez had the
respect of many of his Christianneighbors. Ezra Stiles, a
(13:02):
longtime Newport minister, andlater president of Yale College,
praised Lopez as "a merchant ofeminence of polite and amiable
manners, hospitality,liberality, and benevolence were
his true characteristics." Inother words, according to
Stiles, Lopez was an idealmember of the community, except
(13:22):
for one thing. Lopez was a Jew.Rhode Island had a long
tradition of religioustoleration and pluralism. The
colonies 1663 charter declaredthat its inhabitants would,
quote, have and enjoy his andtheir own judgments and
consciences in matters ofreligious concernments. On
(13:47):
September 9 1761, Lopez andanother Jewish merchant, Isaac
Eliezer, petitioned the SuperiorCourt of Newport to become
naturalized as British subjectsunder the Plantation Act of
1740. This Act gave individualsthe right to obtain
naturalization after seven yearsof residence in the British
colonies. Normally, theprocedure involved taking an
(14:10):
oath of allegiance to the crownand making a profession of
Protestant Christianity. But the1740 Act exempted both Quakers
and Jews from this requirement.The right to worship as he
pleased was probably just one ofLopez's motivations for
naturalization. Parliamentrestricted foreign immigrants
like him from fullyparticipating in Britain's
(14:30):
commercial empire. So Lopez hada few reasons for wanting the
same rights as a natural bornsubject of King George the
Third. After Lopez and Eliezersubmitted their petitions to the
Newport Superior Court, thingsseemed to be going as expected.
On September 10, they took theoath of allegiance as the
Plantation Act required. So far,so good. But then, a month
(14:55):
later, the colony's legislatureessentially denied their
petition. That's, it said thatyes, Lopez and Eliezer could be
admitted as lawful subjects ofthe king with the right to
purchase land and pass it on totheir heirs. But the good news
stopped there. And thelegislature was very clear about
why it's because they were Jews.The legislature's lower house
(15:19):
wrote,
Rhode Island Legislature (15:21):
as the said Aaron Lopez hath declared
himself to be by religion a Jew.This assembly doth not admit
him, nor any other of thatreligion to the full freedom of
the colony to be chosen into anyoffice, nor allowed to give a
vote as a free man.
Mark Oppenheimer (15:37):
Eliezer's petition got the same treatment.
The two Jews could buy land butthey could not hold office or
vote. You might be saying wait asecond, what about Rhode Island
being a haven for religiousfreedom? Well, the court argued
that the colony's 1663 charterenshrined "the free and quiet
(16:00):
enjoyment of the Christianreligion." Therefore, the
petitions of Lopez and Eliezerwere, quote, "absolutely
inconsistent" with the colony's"first principles." According to
the minister Ezra Stiles, thecourt handled the petition in a
way that seemed designed to giveoffence to Lopez and Eliezer.
(16:20):
For example, on the day thecourt ruled on their petitions,
the court also ordered a thiefto be hung and sent an arsonist
to the gallows and a perjurer tothe stocks. Only then did the
court call in Lopez and Eliezer.Here's what Ezra Stiles had to
say about the court's behavioron that day.
Ezra Stiles (16:39):
The Jews were called to hear their almost
equally mortifying sentence andjudgment, which dismissed their
petition for naturalization.Whether this was designedly or
accidental and proceeding uponthe business of the court, I
Mark Oppenheimer (16:53):
So Stiles believed that the two Jews were
don't learn.
deliberately thrown into thatday's court session with the
thief, the arsonist and theperjurer. All to be handled
together, as if to send amessage. Now, neither Lopez nor
Eliezer were inclined to justshrug their shoulders at the
insult. Eliezer obtained hisnaturalization from New York. In
(17:15):
that colony, Jews could vote andhold office. In fact, it was the
only mainland British colonywhere Jews enjoyed such
liberties. Lopez moved toMassachusetts for three weeks
and got naturalized there.Naturalization didn't mean he
could vote or hold office but itformalized his right to live in
the colony and own land. ForLopez, it was basically a screw
(17:38):
you to Rhode Island, and then hemoved back to Newport. The years
leading up to the AmericanRevolution were not easy for
Aaron Lopez. Several coloniesdecided to stop importing
British goods until Parliamentrepealed what they considered
unlawful taxes. This cut intothe profits of merchants like
Lopez and he skirted both nonimportation agreements and
(18:01):
British taxes. Ezra Stiles, whootherwise admired Lopez, called
him quote, "a Jew merchant," forenriching himself at the expense
of the Patriotic cause. Afterthe War for Independence broke
out in 1775, Lopez made hispeace with the Patriot cause and
Moses Seixas (18:16):
Deprived as we heretofore have been of the
American independence. After thePatriots won, Lopez praised what
he called a "glorious" Americanvictory at Yorktown. And then,
alas, he met a rather ingloriousdemise. On his way back to
Newport in 1782. Lopes stoppedto water his horse in a pond. He
didn't realize how deep the pondwas, and he drowned with his
(18:37):
invaluable rights of freecitizens, We now with a deep
family watching. When theylooked back on the life of Aaron
Lopez, the residents of Newportnoted his great wealth, but they
often did so with an air ofresentment. They wondered, why
was he so much wealthier thanhis neighbors? Perhaps his gains
were ill gotten. Even those thatdidn't come from slaving. His
(18:59):
neighbors accused him ofbreaking patriotic agreements,
bribing customs officials, andpassing off worthless
sense of gratitude to theAlmighty, disposer of all
continental paper money tounsuspecting farmers. The
history of Newport's Jewishcommunity became less glorious
after the US had won itsindependence. Not all of those
who had fled the Britishoccupation moved back. And some
(19:21):
who did return later moved toNew York and other cities. Back
in 1763, Newport's synagoguecongregation Yeshuat Israel had
events, behold a government,erected by the majesty of the
finished building an elegantbuilding. It was later named for
Isaac Touro, who was thesynagogues hazan or cantor. But
now, after the war, the buildingbecame more and more empty. This
(19:41):
wasn't because of anti semitism.It's just that for Jewish
merchants who aspire to be fullcitizens of the United States,
there were simply betteropportunities in other cities.
In 1789, George Washington waselected the first President of
people, a government which tobigotry gives no sanction, to
the United States under the newfederal Constitution. Early in
his presidency, he toured NewEngland, but he skipped Rhode
(20:05):
Island because it hadn't yetratified the Constitution. After
Rhode Island finally agreed toratify the Constitution,
Washington went for a visit inAugust 1790. That day went the
same way that every day goes.When you're the president
visiting a city. The whole townturned out and there were lots
of speeches. But in the 18thcentury, speeches were often
(20:26):
persecution no assistance, butgenerously affords to all
written in the form of a letter.The town leaders made a speech,
the Masons made a speech, theChristian clergy made a speech,
lots and lots of speeches. TheJewish congregation of Newport
was also invited to make aspeech in the form of a letter
written by Moses Seixas, thesynagogue's warden. The letter
(20:48):
starts by asserting that quote,"the children of the stock of
Abraham" joined their "fellowcitizens" in welcoming
liberty of conscience andimmunities of citizenships.
Washington to Newport. Thatsounds bland, but it's actually
a rather significant claim.These Jews understood themselves
as fellow citizens of the newnation, not just refugees, or
grudgingly tolerated outsiders,fellow citizens. In fact, their
(21:12):
letter noted that the Jews ofNewport had "heretofore" been
"deprived of the invaluablerights of free citizens." They
Deeming every one, of whatevernation, tongue or language equal
may have been thinking of RhodeIsland's treatment of Aaron
Lopez and Isaac Eliezer. Theimplication was that going
forward, they would not bedenied those rights. Seixas and
his fellow congregants madeclear their aspiration for a
(21:35):
future in which their rightswere secure. Here's what Moses
Seixas wrote.
Mark Oppenheimer (21:40):
Now, when President Washington made it to
parts of the great governmental machine?
(22:13):
New York City a few days later,he sent a letter back to the
Hebrew congregation in Newport,and Washington's response
incorporated the language andthe ideals of the congregation.
Here's what Washington had tosay,
George Washington (22:25):
all possess a like liberty of conscience and
immunities of citizenship. It isnow no more that toleration is
spoken of, as if it were theindulgence of one class of
people that another enjoyed theexercise of their inherent
natural rights. For happily thegovernment of the United States
which gives to bigotry, nosanction, to persecution, no
(22:48):
assistance, requires only thatthey who live under its
protection should demeanthemselves as good citizens.
Mark Oppenheimer (22:56):
And then Washington closed with his
favorite reference from the bookof Micah from the Hebrew Bible,
George Washington (23:01):
may the children of the stock of Abraham
who dwell in this land, continueto merit and enjoy the goodwill
of the other inhabitants, whileeveryone shall sit in safety
under his own vine and fig tree,and there shall be none to make
him afraid.
Mark Oppenheimer (23:18):
It's a powerful vision.
There weren't many places onEarth where Jews were able to
dwell safely and in freedom.Washington was fond of
describing his beloved home atMount Vernon as his vine and fig
tree. And in this letter, he waspromising that the small Newport
Jewish community couldexperience the same safety that
he had as the president andcommander in chief. And how were
(23:45):
American Jews going toexperience that peace and
safety? Washington had advanceda powerful idea that minority
religious and ethnic groups likethe Jews didn't deserve
toleration. Instead, they hadinherent natural rights. In
other words, religious freedomwasn't something that the
powerful gave to the weak, itwas something all humans
(24:09):
inherently deserved. And thenthere are those famous words
that Washington borrowed fromSeixas that the United States
government would give tobigotry, no sanction, to
persecution, no assistance. Theremarkable thing is that those
words which were reprinted innewspapers across the country,
(24:30):
were not literally true. In1790, the Constitution prevented
a religious test or oath frombeing used to bar religious
minorities from office. Butthere was no bill of rights yet,
that wouldn't be ratified untilthe following year. And once the
bill of rights had been added tothe Constitution, those first 10
amendments along with the ban onreligious tests or oaths,
(24:53):
applied only to the federalgovernment, not to the states.
And that wouldn't change formore than a century. At the
time, Washington wrote hisletter, Jews still could not
vote or hold office in RhodeIsland. And that was the case in
most states. To bigotry nosanction, to persecution no
(25:15):
assistance was a powerful ideal,an ideal shared by both the
nation's first president and bythe Jews of Newport. But it
wasn't reality, not yet. MosesSeixas worked in commerce,
helped organize the state bank,and was the leader of Rhode
Island's Masons. He knew how theworld worked. And he knew that
Jews weren't guaranteed a placein it. The Jews of Newport knew
(25:38):
that history. They knew what thepresent reality was. They also
knew what the ideals of theirnew nation were. And they were
determined to make those idealsa reality. Seixas and the
Newport synagogue ended theirletter to Washington with a
wish.
Moses Seixas (25:57):
When like Joshua, full of days and full of honor,
you are gathered to yourFathers, may you be admitted
into the heavenly paradise topartake of the water of life and
the tree of immortality.
Mark Oppenheimer (26:10):
Since before the founding of the Republic,
American Jews have faceddiscrimination, opposition,
exclusion, hatred, violence,slander, and conspiratorial
thinking. What Seixas and hisfellow Jews wanted was no less
than what Washington took forgranted - to live peacefully
under their own vine and figtree in a country where they too
(26:32):
would be, as Washingtonpowerfully declared himself in
his last will and testament, acitizen of the United States.
(26:57):
Thank you for listening toAntisemitism, U.S.A. it's a
production of R2 Studios part ofthe Roy Rosenzweig Center for
History and New Media at GeorgeMason University. Visit
R2studios.org for a completetranscript of today's episode
and for suggestions for furtherreading. I'm your host Mark
Oppenheimer. Antisemitism,U.S.A. is written by John Turner
and Lincoln Mullen. Britt Tevisis our lead scholar Jim Ambuske
(27:20):
is our producer, JeanettePatrick is our executive
producer. We'd like to thank ZefEleff for being our lead advisor
and we'd like to thank ouradvisory board members, Laura
Shaw Frank, Riv-Ellen Prell, andJonathan Sarna. Our graduate
assistants are Rachel Birch,Alexandra Miller, and Amber
Pelham. And our thanks to YairRosenberg for sharing his
expertise with us in thisepisode. We're able to bring you
this show through the generosityof the Henry Luce Foundation,
(27:43):
the David Bruce SmithFoundation, and many individual
donors like you. Thank you forlistening, and we hope you'll
join us for the next episode.
Support for Antisemitism, U.S.A. comes from
the Henry Luce Foundation andthe David Bruce Smith
Foundation.
Squirrel Hill is one of theoldest Jewish neighborhoods in
the United States. It's inPittsburgh, and historically
(00:23):
it's been about a third Jewishgive or take. There's a Jewish
Community Center there areJewish businesses and
synagogues. It's a beautifulcommunity to be part of. It was
also the scene of a horrificattack against Jews. Robert
(00:44):
Bowers hated immigrants, and hebelieved that Jews were
encouraging immigration. And onShabbat morning, Saturday,
October 27, 2018, Bowers enteredthe Tree of Life synagogue. Now,
inside that building, there werethree different congregations
worshiping in different areas.There was Tree of Life, main
(01:08):
congregation, and then twoothers that rented space Dor
Hadash and New Light. Bowersshot and killed 11 People from
among all three congregations.Their names were Daniel Stein,
Joyce Feinberg, RichardGottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry
(01:29):
Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal,David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon.
Sylvan Simon, Melvin Wax, andIrving Younger. The youngest
person murdered was 54 yearsold. The oldest was 97. It was
the deadliest attack on Jews inAmerican history. Five years
(01:55):
later, in August of 2023, afederal court found Bowers
guilty of all 11 deaths, and hewas sentenced to death.
(02:15):
After events like the Tree ofLife shootings in Pittsburgh, or
the Unite the Right rally inCharlottesville, Virginia, or
after the October 7 Hamasattacks, Americans often talk
about antisemitism in the UStoday, as if it were something
new, something without ahistory. politicians and pundits
and just normal everyday Jewsexpress dismay, but they also
(02:38):
express surprise. They say wheredid this come from? But
antisemitism in the US is notnew. It has a history, a long
history, a history that'scomplex and often at odds with
itself. It's a history that iseasy to overlook. Now, in a
certain sense, Americans andeven American Jews haven't been
(03:00):
interested in that history. Welike to believe that this
country has always been good forthe Jews. And there are good
reasons for that belief.Antisemitism in the US has never
been deadly. The way that antiJewish violence in Europe or
North Africa or the Middle Easthas been really, really deadly.
You can make a pretty goodargument that in no country
(03:22):
except maybe Israel, have Jewsbeen freer than in the United
States - free from violence,free from bigotry free from
hatred, compared with basicallyevery other land in the world in
the past 2000 years, the UnitedStates has been the promised
land for Jews. But there hasbeen antisemitism here since
before the nation's founding.There has been religious
(03:43):
bigotry. There's been racializedhatred directed toward Jews and
conspiracy theories andstereotypes. And we have to talk
about it. I'm Mark Oppenheimer,and this is Antisemitism,
U.S.A., a podcast about thehistory of antisemitism in the
United States. Episode One, NoSanction to Bigotry.
(04:13):
Let's turn back to that 2018massacre in Squirrel Hill. And
look at the motives of theshooter. Because Robert Bowers,
his motives are a clue to whatanti-semitism is and what it's
been throughout Americanhistory. A simple definition of
anti- semitism is hatred ofJews. But the gunman at Tree of
(04:33):
Life hated Jews in thatsynagogue for a very specific
reason. Robert Bowers believedthat immigrants from South
America arriving in the US wouldbe violent toward white people.
And crucially, he believed thatJews were engaged in a secret
conspiracy to encourageimmigrants to replace white
Americans. Now one of thecongregations inside that
(04:55):
building Dor Hadash hadpartnered with HIAS the Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society to sponsora national refugee Shabbat, a
Sabbath day in honor ofrefugees, there was nothing
secretive or conspiratorialabout it. These Jews did support
immigrants, not to replace orkill white people, but to
welcome them.
(05:16):
But that's not how Bowers sawit.
Shortly before the shooting, hewrote that HIAS quote, likes to
bring invaders, meaningimmigrants, in that kill our
people. I can't sit by and watchmy people get slaughtered, screw
your optics I'm going in. Hemeant going into the synagogue
to shoot Jews. Antisemitism is aconvenient hatred. It's
(05:40):
something to reach for anytimesomeone is angry about the world
and needs some group to blame.Wherever hatred or
conspiratorial thinkingflourishes, you can probably
find antisemitism flourishingtoo. Here's Yair Rosenberg, a
staff writer at The Atlanticmagazine, who covers politics
and religion, and writes a lotabout contemporary antisemitism.
Yair Rosenberg (06:03):
Most people conceive of anti-semitism as a
personal prejudice, like manyothers, which means that a bigot
despises Jews, because they'redifferent, just as they might
despise other people who aredifferent whether they're too
black, too Muslim or too Jewish.And antisemitism absolutely is a
personal prejudice. But it'salso something else. It's a
(06:26):
conspiracy theory about how theworld works that posits sinister
string pulling Jews behind thescenes who are behind social and
political problems. And thatkind of antisemitism is less
well understood, because it'snot how many other prejudices
operate. But it's also the kindof antisemitism that if you
scratch beneath the surface, isthe sort that is more dangerous
(06:49):
and tends to get Jews killed,including today, you'll look at
recent anti-semitic attacks onAmerican soil, whether it's the
massacre at Pittsburgh's Tree ofLife synagogue, or the shooting
at a kosher supermarket inJersey City just a few years
ago, or the hostage situation inColleyville, Texas, where an
(07:10):
entire congregation was heldhostage for much of the Jewish
Sabbath. In all of these cases,the perpetrators had completely
different backgrounds. InPittsburgh, it was a white
supremacist, in Jersey City, itwas people who were sympathetic
to the Black Hebrew Israelitemovement. And then in
Colleyville, Texas, it wasMuslim extremists from Britain.
(07:31):
Ostensibly, these things have noconnection to each other. But if
you look at the ideology of allthe perpetrators, they all acted
because they believed that Jewscontrolled American society,
were responsible for itsproblems, and you know it had
outsized influence over it. Thewhite supremacist attacked the
synagogue because he thoughtthat Jews were responsible for
(07:53):
flooding the country with thebrown people that he hated as
part of what he called the greatreplacement of the white race.
The Black Hebrew Israelitesympathizers, who attacked the
kosher supermarket, one of themhad written on social media
about how the Jews controlledthe government. And the Islamic
extremist who held thatsynagogue hostage in Texas did
(08:13):
so because he thought thatAmerican Rabbis held sway over
America's authorities and couldget somebody released from
prison nearby. So all of thesevery dangerous and deadly
antisemitic attacks wereactually motivated by this
conspiracy theory of Jewishcontrol.
Mark Oppenheimer (08:33):
Conspiratorial thinking is powerful, and
antisemitism is an old andvirulent form of conspiratorial
thinking. People have beenbelieving conspiracy theories
about Jews for at least amillennia. In the United States,
conspiracy thinking didn't evenbecome the dominant form of
anti-semitism until the early20th century. For that we can
(08:53):
blame Henry Ford of the FordMotor Company. In addition to
giving the world affordableautomobiles produced on an
assembly line, he alsopopularized a deadly conspiracy
theory based on a Russian hoaxin the early 20th century. And
since that time, conspiratorialthinking has been the main form
of anti-semitism in the US. Andwe'll get back to Henry Ford and
(09:16):
his role in this. But there areother strains of anti-semitism.
And over the course of thisseries, we'll explore the ways
that Jews were systematicallydenied citizenship rights in
colonial America, and in manyplaces after the American
Revolution. We'll talk about howChristian missionaries attempted
to convert Jews. We'll talkabout laws that made it
difficult for Jews to practicetheir religion. We'll explain
(09:39):
how Jews were kept out of eliteHotels and Resorts. We'll talk
about the rise of scientificracism in the 19th century.
We'll see how conspiracytheories infected the general
population and even parts of theUS government. We will examine
how the government failed tohelp Jewish refugees before,
during, and after the Holocaust.And we will talk about the rise
(10:02):
of anti-Zionism and how it canserve as a thin veneer over
anti-semitism. And we'll talkabout the recent rise of white
supremacist anti semitism in thecontemporary United States. By
most any measure anti-semitismis on the rise in the US,
(10:22):
according to a survey by theAnti Defamation League in 2022
1/5 of Americans holdextensively anti semitic views.
And we'll dig into that data ina later episode. For now, what
matters is that this is thehighest percentage that the ADL
has seen in many years. Whitesupremacists and Neo Nazis have
grown in strength andsignificance. So too has anti
(10:45):
semitic vandalism in publicschools and on synagogue walls.
Everyday instances of antisemitic slurs or low level
violence and harassment of Jewshave also grown significantly.
Public figures from politiciansto celebrities routinely bring
up anti semitic ideas. Jews areharassed on college campuses.
Where did this all come from?
(11:07):
We'll dive in after the break.
Aaron Lopez and his family hadgotten used to adapting. The
(11:31):
Lopez's were Sephardic Jews fromPortugal. They were conversos,
Jews who had outwardly convertedto Catholicism, but had
privately maintained theirJewish identity and practice.
Under threat from the PortugueseInquisition, the family started
emigrating to the Britishcolonies around 1740. Prior to
this moment, Aaron Lopez wasn'tcalled Aaron Lopez. He was known
as Duarte or Edward Lopez. Butwhen he emigrated, he adopted a
(11:55):
Jewish name Aaron. He was alsocircumcised at the age of 20. In
the early 1750s, Aaron Lopezsettled in Newport, Rhode
Island. In the colonies, hecould be a new man, a Jewish
man, and as it came to pass arich man. In fact, Lopez became
Newport's richest man. At onepoint he paid twice as much in
(12:17):
taxes as the next wealthiest manin the city. He traded in soap,
candles made from sperm whaleoil, and slaves. In a
partnership with his father inlaw, he backed ships that
forcibly brought hundreds ofenslaved men, women and children
from Africa to the Caribbean andSouth Carolina. Now, there's an
anti semitic canard out therethat it was primarily Jews who
(12:39):
were responsible for the slavetrade. That is far from the
truth. Jewish merchants in fact,played a pretty small role. But
trading and human beings was onething that made Lopez and his
family rich. He also ownedslaves himself. Lopez had the
respect of many of his Christianneighbors. Ezra Stiles, a
(13:02):
longtime Newport minister, andlater president of Yale College,
praised Lopez as "a merchant ofeminence of polite and amiable
manners, hospitality,liberality, and benevolence were
his true characteristics." Inother words, according to
Stiles, Lopez was an idealmember of the community, except
(13:22):
for one thing. Lopez was a Jew.Rhode Island had a long
tradition of religioustoleration and pluralism. The
colonies 1663 charter declaredthat its inhabitants would,
quote, have and enjoy his andtheir own judgments and
consciences in matters ofreligious concernments. On
(13:47):
September 9 1761, Lopez andanother Jewish merchant, Isaac
Eliezer, petitioned the SuperiorCourt of Newport to become
naturalized as British subjectsunder the Plantation Act of
1740. This Act gave individualsthe right to obtain
naturalization after seven yearsof residence in the British
colonies. Normally, theprocedure involved taking an
(14:10):
oath of allegiance to the crownand making a profession of
Protestant Christianity. But the1740 Act exempted both Quakers
and Jews from this requirement.The right to worship as he
pleased was probably just one ofLopez's motivations for
naturalization. Parliamentrestricted foreign immigrants
like him from fullyparticipating in Britain's
(14:30):
commercial empire. So Lopez hada few reasons for wanting the
same rights as a natural bornsubject of King George the
Third. After Lopez and Eliezersubmitted their petitions to the
Newport Superior Court, thingsseemed to be going as expected.
On September 10, they took theoath of allegiance as the
Plantation Act required. So far,so good. But then, a month
(14:55):
later, the colony's legislatureessentially denied their
petition. That's, it said thatyes, Lopez and Eliezer could be
admitted as lawful subjects ofthe king with the right to
purchase land and pass it on totheir heirs. But the good news
stopped there. And thelegislature was very clear about
why it's because they were Jews.The legislature's lower house
(15:19):
wrote,
Rhode Island Legislature (15:21):
as the said Aaron Lopez hath declared
himself to be by religion a Jew.This assembly doth not admit
him, nor any other of thatreligion to the full freedom of
the colony to be chosen into anyoffice, nor allowed to give a
vote as a free man.
Mark Oppenheimer (15:37):
Eliezer's petition got the same treatment.
The two Jews could buy land butthey could not hold office or
vote. You might be saying wait asecond, what about Rhode Island
being a haven for religiousfreedom? Well, the court argued
that the colony's 1663 charterenshrined "the free and quiet
(16:00):
enjoyment of the Christianreligion." Therefore, the
petitions of Lopez and Eliezerwere, quote, "absolutely
inconsistent" with the colony's"first principles." According to
the minister Ezra Stiles, thecourt handled the petition in a
way that seemed designed to giveoffence to Lopez and Eliezer.
(16:20):
For example, on the day thecourt ruled on their petitions,
the court also ordered a thiefto be hung and sent an arsonist
to the gallows and a perjurer tothe stocks. Only then did the
court call in Lopez and Eliezer.Here's what Ezra Stiles had to
say about the court's behavioron that day.
Ezra Stiles (16:39):
The Jews were called to hear their almost
equally mortifying sentence andjudgment, which dismissed their
petition for naturalization.Whether this was designedly or
accidental and proceeding uponthe business of the court, I
Mark Oppenheimer (16:53):
So Stiles believed that the two Jews were
don't learn.
deliberately thrown into thatday's court session with the
thief, the arsonist and theperjurer. All to be handled
together, as if to send amessage. Now, neither Lopez nor
Eliezer were inclined to justshrug their shoulders at the
insult. Eliezer obtained hisnaturalization from New York. In
(17:15):
that colony, Jews could vote andhold office. In fact, it was the
only mainland British colonywhere Jews enjoyed such
liberties. Lopez moved toMassachusetts for three weeks
and got naturalized there.Naturalization didn't mean he
could vote or hold office but itformalized his right to live in
the colony and own land. ForLopez, it was basically a screw
(17:38):
you to Rhode Island, and then hemoved back to Newport. The years
leading up to the AmericanRevolution were not easy for
Aaron Lopez. Several coloniesdecided to stop importing
British goods until Parliamentrepealed what they considered
unlawful taxes. This cut intothe profits of merchants like
Lopez and he skirted both nonimportation agreements and
(18:01):
British taxes. Ezra Stiles, whootherwise admired Lopez, called
him quote, "a Jew merchant," forenriching himself at the expense
of the Patriotic cause. Afterthe War for Independence broke
out in 1775, Lopez made hispeace with the Patriot cause and
Moses Seixas (18:16):
Deprived as we heretofore have been of the
American independence. After thePatriots won, Lopez praised what
he called a "glorious" Americanvictory at Yorktown. And then,
alas, he met a rather ingloriousdemise. On his way back to
Newport in 1782. Lopes stoppedto water his horse in a pond. He
didn't realize how deep the pondwas, and he drowned with his
(18:37):
invaluable rights of freecitizens, We now with a deep
family watching. When theylooked back on the life of Aaron
Lopez, the residents of Newportnoted his great wealth, but they
often did so with an air ofresentment. They wondered, why
was he so much wealthier thanhis neighbors? Perhaps his gains
were ill gotten. Even those thatdidn't come from slaving. His
(18:59):
neighbors accused him ofbreaking patriotic agreements,
bribing customs officials, andpassing off worthless
sense of gratitude to theAlmighty, disposer of all
continental paper money tounsuspecting farmers. The
history of Newport's Jewishcommunity became less glorious
after the US had won itsindependence. Not all of those
who had fled the Britishoccupation moved back. And some
(19:21):
who did return later moved toNew York and other cities. Back
in 1763, Newport's synagoguecongregation Yeshuat Israel had
events, behold a government,erected by the majesty of the
finished building an elegantbuilding. It was later named for
Isaac Touro, who was thesynagogues hazan or cantor. But
now, after the war, the buildingbecame more and more empty. This
(19:41):
wasn't because of anti semitism.It's just that for Jewish
merchants who aspire to be fullcitizens of the United States,
there were simply betteropportunities in other cities.
In 1789, George Washington waselected the first President of
people, a government which tobigotry gives no sanction, to
the United States under the newfederal Constitution. Early in
his presidency, he toured NewEngland, but he skipped Rhode
(20:05):
Island because it hadn't yetratified the Constitution. After
Rhode Island finally agreed toratify the Constitution,
Washington went for a visit inAugust 1790. That day went the
same way that every day goes.When you're the president
visiting a city. The whole townturned out and there were lots
of speeches. But in the 18thcentury, speeches were often
(20:26):
persecution no assistance, butgenerously affords to all
written in the form of a letter.The town leaders made a speech,
the Masons made a speech, theChristian clergy made a speech,
lots and lots of speeches. TheJewish congregation of Newport
was also invited to make aspeech in the form of a letter
written by Moses Seixas, thesynagogue's warden. The letter
(20:48):
starts by asserting that quote,"the children of the stock of
Abraham" joined their "fellowcitizens" in welcoming
liberty of conscience andimmunities of citizenships.
Washington to Newport. Thatsounds bland, but it's actually
a rather significant claim.These Jews understood themselves
as fellow citizens of the newnation, not just refugees, or
grudgingly tolerated outsiders,fellow citizens. In fact, their
(21:12):
letter noted that the Jews ofNewport had "heretofore" been
"deprived of the invaluablerights of free citizens." They
Deeming every one, of whatevernation, tongue or language equal
may have been thinking of RhodeIsland's treatment of Aaron
Lopez and Isaac Eliezer. Theimplication was that going
forward, they would not bedenied those rights. Seixas and
his fellow congregants madeclear their aspiration for a
(21:35):
future in which their rightswere secure. Here's what Moses
Seixas wrote.
Mark Oppenheimer (21:40):
Now, when President Washington made it to
parts of the great governmental machine?
(22:13):
New York City a few days later,he sent a letter back to the
Hebrew congregation in Newport,and Washington's response
incorporated the language andthe ideals of the congregation.
Here's what Washington had tosay,
George Washington (22:25):
all possess a like liberty of conscience and
immunities of citizenship. It isnow no more that toleration is
spoken of, as if it were theindulgence of one class of
people that another enjoyed theexercise of their inherent
natural rights. For happily thegovernment of the United States
which gives to bigotry, nosanction, to persecution, no
(22:48):
assistance, requires only thatthey who live under its
protection should demeanthemselves as good citizens.
Mark Oppenheimer (22:56):
And then Washington closed with his
favorite reference from the bookof Micah from the Hebrew Bible,
George Washington (23:01):
may the children of the stock of Abraham
who dwell in this land, continueto merit and enjoy the goodwill
of the other inhabitants, whileeveryone shall sit in safety
under his own vine and fig tree,and there shall be none to make
him afraid.
Mark Oppenheimer (23:18):
It's a powerful vision.
There weren't many places onEarth where Jews were able to
dwell safely and in freedom.Washington was fond of
describing his beloved home atMount Vernon as his vine and fig
tree. And in this letter, he waspromising that the small Newport
Jewish community couldexperience the same safety that
he had as the president andcommander in chief. And how were
(23:45):
American Jews going toexperience that peace and
safety? Washington had advanceda powerful idea that minority
religious and ethnic groups likethe Jews didn't deserve
toleration. Instead, they hadinherent natural rights. In
other words, religious freedomwasn't something that the
powerful gave to the weak, itwas something all humans
(24:09):
inherently deserved. And thenthere are those famous words
that Washington borrowed fromSeixas that the United States
government would give tobigotry, no sanction, to
persecution, no assistance. Theremarkable thing is that those
words which were reprinted innewspapers across the country,
(24:30):
were not literally true. In1790, the Constitution prevented
a religious test or oath frombeing used to bar religious
minorities from office. Butthere was no bill of rights yet,
that wouldn't be ratified untilthe following year. And once the
bill of rights had been added tothe Constitution, those first 10
amendments along with the ban onreligious tests or oaths,
(24:53):
applied only to the federalgovernment, not to the states.
And that wouldn't change formore than a century. At the
time, Washington wrote hisletter, Jews still could not
vote or hold office in RhodeIsland. And that was the case in
most states. To bigotry nosanction, to persecution no
(25:15):
assistance was a powerful ideal,an ideal shared by both the
nation's first president and bythe Jews of Newport. But it
wasn't reality, not yet. MosesSeixas worked in commerce,
helped organize the state bank,and was the leader of Rhode
Island's Masons. He knew how theworld worked. And he knew that
Jews weren't guaranteed a placein it. The Jews of Newport knew
(25:38):
that history. They knew what thepresent reality was. They also
knew what the ideals of theirnew nation were. And they were
determined to make those idealsa reality. Seixas and the
Newport synagogue ended theirletter to Washington with a
wish.
Moses Seixas (25:57):
When like Joshua, full of days and full of honor,
you are gathered to yourFathers, may you be admitted
into the heavenly paradise topartake of the water of life and
the tree of immortality.
Mark Oppenheimer (26:10):
Since before the founding of the Republic,
American Jews have faceddiscrimination, opposition,
exclusion, hatred, violence,slander, and conspiratorial
thinking. What Seixas and hisfellow Jews wanted was no less
than what Washington took forgranted - to live peacefully
under their own vine and figtree in a country where they too
(26:32):
would be, as Washingtonpowerfully declared himself in
his last will and testament, acitizen of the United States.
(26:57):
Thank you for listening toAntisemitism, U.S.A. it's a
production of R2 Studios part ofthe Roy Rosenzweig Center for
History and New Media at GeorgeMason University. Visit
R2studios.org for a completetranscript of today's episode
and for suggestions for furtherreading. I'm your host Mark
Oppenheimer. Antisemitism,U.S.A. is written by John Turner
and Lincoln Mullen. Britt Tevisis our lead scholar Jim Ambuske
(27:20):
is our producer, JeanettePatrick is our executive
producer. We'd like to thank ZefEleff for being our lead advisor
and we'd like to thank ouradvisory board members, Laura
Shaw Frank, Riv-Ellen Prell, andJonathan Sarna. Our graduate
assistants are Rachel Birch,Alexandra Miller, and Amber
Pelham. And our thanks to YairRosenberg for sharing his
expertise with us in thisepisode. We're able to bring you
this show through the generosityof the Henry Luce Foundation,
(27:43):
the David Bruce SmithFoundation, and many individual
donors like you. Thank you forlistening, and we hope you'll
join us for the next episode.
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