Language:
English
Year of publication:
2004
Titel der Quelle:
American Jewish Archives Journal
Angaben zur Quelle:
56,1-2 (2004) 151-177
Keywords:
Mussolini, Benito,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Antisemitism History 1500-
;
Jews
;
United States Ethnic relations
Abstract:
Although there was an alliance between Italian Americans and Jewish Americans in the Democratic Party in the Roosevelt era, there was also ethnic tension stemming partly from competition for patronage, jobs, and housing. This tension made many Italian Americans receptive to the antisemitism of Italian fascists and their American supporters. Some American Jews, like many Italian Americans, admired Mussolini, but when he turned radical and antisemitic in 1938, the Jews lost their enthusiasm for him while the Italian Americans continued to admire him. American electoral considerations led politicians, both Jewish and partly Jewish, like the mayor of New York Fiorello La Guardia (who was of Jewish descent on the side of his mother, Irene Luzzato-Cohen), to avoid directly condemning Italian fascism. La Guardia focused his criticism on Nazi Germany. Italian American antisemitism was sometimes expressed in anti-Jewish violence, more often in hostile rhetoric. Italy's declaration of war on the USA dampened sympathy for fascism in the country and, hence, also for Italian American antisemitism.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink
