Saturday Evening Post Analyzes Difference Between “american Jews” and “jews in America”

Those who claim that American Jews, as a group, have helped to build up interventionist sentiment in America "are using a red herring, or, rather, a red, white and blue herring," Judge Jerome Frank, of the United Circuit Court of Appeals, will declare in an article in the next issue of the Saturday Evening Post.

"There is no such thing as a cohesive American Jewish group with a common body of opinion," Judge Frank adds. "Among the Americans who are classified as Jews there are as many kinds of opinion on any subject affecting America as among Americans generally. And that was, and is, true with respect to World War II."

Pointing out that he was a strong isolationist who wrote a book on the subject, until Hitler’s victories, Judge Frank says the same change occurred in the thinking of many Americans including many Jews, and many now regret earlier opposition to "collective security."

"Most American Jews, like most German-Americans, are thoroughly devoted to America’s interests" the article says. "Unhappily, there is a small, unrepresentative minority who should not be described as American Jews but as Jews in America. And, as they are played up as typical, it is important to take a look at those hyphenates.

"There are Jews in America who are Communists, or fellow travelers. They are, emotionally, merely sojourners in America. Their major, interest is Russia. They do not think of themselves as Jews. They have as little regard for Jewish as for American welfare. These Communist Jews recognize that the majority of American Jews, at whom they sneer as ‘hopelessly middle class’ are their enemies. The total number of Communists and fellow-traveler Jews is but a small fraction of the total American Jewish population. To play them up as typical is to mislead."

ZIONISTS ARE TERMED AS "JEWISH SOJOURNERS IN AMERICA"

Judge Frank adds that there is a small group of what he calls "fanatic Jewish nationalists" who have identified themselves completely with Palestine and that these, too, he says are "Jewish sojourners in America." In addition, he lists "a group of wealthy Fascist Jews in America" which he says is not large in number and has escaped public attention. They want America to appease Hitler, according to Judge Frank who says "most of them would welcome some kind of American dictatorship, which, they are confident, would be no menace to them."

"Those minorities are out of step with the great majority of American Jews," the article says.

"The erroneous belief that American Jews think and act and vote as a bloc, and are primarily interested in matters Jewish in America and throughout the world, gains plausibility because a majority of American Jews have adopted a ‘hush policy.’ They have been understandably sensitive to criticism and have feared that any discussion of ‘the Jewish question’ would activate anti-Jewish feelings."

Judge Frank says he favors a policy of speaking out and charges "some persons deliberately, and others innocently, are aiding Nazi efforts to promote violent American anti-Semitism of the concentration camp variety. If ever any Americans go to a concentration camp, American democracy will go with them."