An analysis of campaign issues, as well as of the aspirants for public office in this year’s national elections, reveals a marked decrease in the use of anti-Semitism as a political weapon, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith reported today.
A nation-wide survey, made public by N.Y. State Supreme Court Justice Maier Steinbrink, A.D.L. national chairman, indicates that the comparative absence of anti-Semitic activity in the present campaign, as contrasted with the overt bigotry that predominated in 1940 and 1944, is primarily due to the fact that economic conditions are good and that there are no domestic or foreign issues which are sharply dividing Americans.
Twenty-one candidates who sought party nominations in the primaries last spring were declared by Arnold Forster, director of A.D.L.’s Civil Rights Division, which conducted the survey, to be either known anti-Semites or, at best, individuals with "questionable" attitudes towards Jews. Ten of the 21 could not get past the primaries. Of the remaining candidates, at least four face certain defeat in next Tuesday’s elections, the report said.
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.
