Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative. Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.–Editor.]

The Sapiro-Ford trial is the subject of editorial comment in the Jewish press.

The “Day” (March 15th) expresses regret that Judge Raymond “decided to bar, although not entirely, the purely Jewish issue in the whole case.”

Going over the charges made by Ford against Sapiro, the paper feels convinced that “unless the charge of a ‘Jewish conspiracy’ is probed, the meaning of the whole trial is lost.” However, the “Day” says, despite the ruling of the court, the Jewish issue will have to come up in the course of the proceedings.

“While the ruling is to be regretted, it should not be thought,” we are told, “that there will be no opportunity at this unique trial to air Ford’s malignant anti-Semitism and his idiotic libels against Jews. The whole attack on Mr. Sapiro is closely bound up with Ford’s Jew-baiting, with his insane desire to represent the Jews in the same light as that in which they were represented by the worst, most criminal Jew-baiters under the Czar. Jewish public opinion asks for but one thing: American Jewry wants to have the multi-millionaire, Ford the Jewbaiter, come out in open court with his charges, his suspicions and libels. The world will then witness an interesting and instructive spectacle. We are sure what the result will then be.

“By the way,” the paper concludes, “the Jews have already recorded a victory over Ford–in Ford’s efforts to evade the Jewish issue. Is that not the best proof that he is afraid? Is not that an admission that he was a liar and a libeler in all his attacks against the Jewish people and especially in his attacks on a number of American Jews as Jews?”

Regret at the ruling of the court on the question of the Jewish issue is also voiced by the “Jewish Daily News”, which observes in part:

“Ford attacked Sapiro as one of the Jews he alleges have made a conspiracy for dishonest purposes. If Sapiro is guilty of the charge laid to him by Ford, it means that there is a Jewish conspiracy, that whatever Ford has written about the Jews in true. The trial is, therefore, a Jewish trial in the full sense of the word, because through the decision in the case, Ford’s anti-Semitic campaign will either be strengthened or weakened. The more the anti-Semitic question will be injected in the case, the better it will be for the Jews, because it is certain that Ford will be unable to prove any of the charges made by him in the course of his anti-Jewish activities. This is the attitude of the Jews to the Ford-Sapiro case. It offers an opportunity for the Jews to press the anti-Semitic libeler to the wall. It is an opportunity to show that he does not know what he is talking about. It is very rarely that such an opportunity comes along to bring to court an anti-Semitic libeler, because they are generally careful not to mention names. The attack on Sapiro has offered a good opportunity to expose Ford’s hideous activities.”