Language:
German
Year of publication:
2011
Titel der Quelle:
Ausschluss und Feindschaft
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2011) 79-109
Keywords:
Archibald, Katherine,
;
Horkheimer, Max,
;
Institut für Sozialforschung (Frankfurt am Main, Germany)
;
Antisemitism among American Labor; Report on a Research Project Conducted by the Institute of Social Research Columbia University in 1944-1945
;
Antisemitism History 20th century
Abstract:
Discusses two separate studies conducted in the United States during and after World War II, concerning the effects of the genocide of the European Jews on American antisemitism. The large-scale study "Antisemitism among American Labor" (1944-45) was conducted by Max Horkheimer and others at the Institute of Social Research, Columbia University; it contains interviews with workers on both the East and West Coast. The other study, "Wartime Shipyard: A Study in Social Disunity" (1947), was conducted in the San Francisco Bay area by Katherine Archibald, on her own initiative. The studies agreed that American workers viewed the Jews as personifying capitalism; they viewed their own rejection of the Jews, as well as the verbal and physical violence directed against the Jews by Hitler, as a rejection of class society. Anti-Jewish stereotypes were widespread, but there were some European prejudices that were lacking in the American repertory, mainly seeing the Jews as sickly and sexually dangerous. In the U.S., the latter view was reserved for Blacks. Both studies showed that workers preferred to work with Jews rather than with Blacks. Archibald concluded that antisemitism amongst Blacks was equally as strong as that of Whites, whereas the Institute of Social Research study showed that Blacks felt solidarity with the Jews but the Jews looked down on the Blacks. However, both Archibald and the Institute report (which was never published) warned of a fascist threat in the U.S., and viewed antisemitism as a weapon which could be used to split the proletariate.
Note:
Appeared in English as "Patterns within prejudice: antisemitism in the United States in the 1940s" in "Patterns of Prejudice" 46,2 (2012) 93-127.
DOI:
10.1080/0031322X.2012.672206
URL:
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