Henry Ford’s recantation was viewed as one of the outstanding events of the year in the Rosh Hashanah message of Nathan Straus, who issued a challenge to Ford last year to either prove or retract his charges.
“On the occasion of Rosh Hashanah I extend my greetings to the Jewish people and express the hope that the New Year may witness the improvement of the condition of our people everywhere, that discriminations and persecutions directed against them in certain lands may cease, that their rights be equalized everywhere with those of the rest of the population, and that better understanding among themselves and their neighbors may prevail,” Mr. Straus declared in his message.
“I also hope that the Jewish people will bend all their energies on the rebuilding of Palestine during the coming year, so that the Holy Land may again become a great spiritual center for peace and prosperity–the Jewish Homeland for the good of Israel and the whole world.
“The year just closed has witnessed one of the gravest wrongs righted. I refer to the retraction made by Henry Ford regarding the slanders against the Jewish people that appeared in the ‘Dearborn Independent’. Henry Ford’s change of heart and his frank admission of error will help to destroy the vicious propaganda that the bigoted enemies of the Jewish people are conducting in various countries.
“I wish also, on this occasion, to thank heartily all those who expressed such sympathetic anxiety during my recent serious illness,” he concluded.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
