Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Anti-Semitism in the United States During the Twenties

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

This is the first time I've seen my father so dapper.  He immediately started wearing jeans and plaid shirts and boots forever more.!!!  Only a few times, Mom got him dressed up for a picture for some reason or other, but it wasn't common.  They were a couple, Morris (from Moshe-Moses)  and Milly (Mildred).  Mom/s birthday was June 29, 1914 and Dad's was July 1, 1908.  Dad had 3 years of high school, pitcher on their baseball team, and Mom had less.  Both were very bright.                             
         Me and my father, Maurice Goldfoot;  he smoked cigars

Seven years before I was born was a time that shaped my parents.  It was their era of culture; music, politics, work and fun. Neither one finished  high school.  They met on the streets of Portland being from extremely different cultures, my father being Jewish and a kosher butcher taking a break,  and my mother from a Swedish Lutheran taking a walk with her charges as she was a nanny.   Both of their parents were immigrants, though.  

Antisemitism in the 1920s United States peaked during a period of intense xenophobia, nativism, and racialized anxiety. It manifested systematically through restrictive university admission quotas, exclusionary social and housing policies, and mass-media conspiracy theories championed by prominent industrialist Henry Ford.

  • The Dearborn Independent: Automotive pioneer Henry Ford purchased a local newspaper and used it to publish antisemitic articles that circulated to hundreds of thousands of readers across the country. 
  • The International Jew: Ford compiled these articles into a four-volume series titled "The International Jew," which heavily relied on the fabricated Russian text "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" to legitimize false claims of an international Jewish conspiracy. 
  • Impact of the Media Campaign: Ford's immense celebrity and financial backing brought deeply fringe, foreign conspiracy theories into the mainstream American consciousness, heavily influencing later international antisemitic movements. 
  • University Quotas: Elite institutions of higher education, most notably in the Ivy League, implemented strict, unofficial quota systems that drastically reduced Jewish enrollment. 
  • Societal Segregation: Jewish Americans were systematically barred from joining private social clubs, professional networks, and country clubs. 
  • Housing Restrictions: Real estate covenants were widely used to explicitly prevent Jewish families from purchasing properties in certain neighborhoods. 
  • Strict Immigration Laws: The pervasive xenophobia of the 1920s influenced federal legislation, resulting in the Immigration Act of 1924, which established rigid national-origin quotas designed specifically to limit Jewish and Eastern European immigration. 
  • Rise of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan experienced a massive resurgence in the 1920s, boasting an estimated four million members . The organization amplified its hatred to target not only Black Americans but also Jewish and Catholic populations under the banner of white Protestant supremacy 
  • Doesn't all this look terribly familiar, like we're experiencing the same attitudes and outcomes right now in 2026?  
  • Bryson's book below has this on page 257:
    Charles Lindbergh (born February 4, 1902, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.—died August 26, 1974, Maui, Hawaii) . Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, and military officer who became famous for his 1927 nonstop flight from New York to Paris. He flew alone for over 33 hours, covering 3,600 miles. Lindbergh's feat helped advance aviation and made him an international celebrity. Yet he was an anti-Semite.  
  •   A few Jews add strength and character to a country.  Too many create chaos.  And we are getting too many. Charles Lindbergh
  • Charles Lindbergh’s antisemitism is primarily remembered through his 1941 Des Moines speech, in which he controversially accused the "Jewish race" of conspiring with the British and the Roosevelt administration to manipulate America into entering World War II.
  • The Des Moines Speech (1941)  On September 11, 1941, when I had just turned 7;  while acting as the leading public spokesman for the isolationist America First Committee, Lindbergh delivered a national radio address titled "Who Are the War Agitators?" In it, he stated that "the three most important groups who have been pressing this country toward war are the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt Administration". He characterized Jewish people as outsiders who controlled the press, cinema, and radio, and claimed their primary motivations for war were not aligned with American interests.  


  • Resource:
  • AI
  • PBS, 
  • Wikipedia
  • Holocaust Encyclopedia
  • Museum of Jewish Heritage
  • Book:  One Summer America, 1927 by Bill Bryson, given to me by Portland Librarian Sandra Viah, my friend, that inspired me to write this blog article.  (look at the index under anti-semitism. )



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    Today's Situation In Syria And Israel's Golan

     Nadene Goldfoot                                        

          . Maintained by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), the narrow, 80-kilometer-long demilitarized strip extends along two separation lines."

    "Syria is currently governed by a transitional authority under acting president Ahmed al-Sharaa, AKA Jolani, terrorist . The country is undergoing a delicate post-conflict recovery and economic reintegration, while navigating rising tensions along its southern and northeastern borders". We Americans thought this area was the least of Israel's problems;  that they had their hands full on the border with Lebanon.
     Israel occupied the Golan Heights in 1967, a very necessary move as they were being attacked from there,  and unilaterally annexed the territory in 1981, imposing Israeli civil law. It is heavily integrated into Israel, with dozens of established settlements and a population composed of both Jewish Israelis and Druze residents.  This was important to do because Syrians bombed Israel from  up high in Golan, dropping bombs down below on Israel.  Only the USA recognize Israel in this as the UN is useless, constantly siding with the Muslims.  

    "The Syrian civil war that began in 2011 increased the threat to Israel making Israel’s unwillingness to give up the Golan look prescient. Iran, Hezbollah, and ISIS have fought a war that is so destructive Syria may never be reconstituted as a single nation with its previous borders. Each of those parties pose a risk to Israel, especially Iran, which seeks to build bases in Syria from which it could launch attacks against Israel. Hezbollah has also attempted to establish a beachhead near the Golan to add to the threat they already present from Lebanon. Syria under Assad or a future leader will also be a threat in the absence of a peace agreement.

    On March 21, 2019, President Donald Trump announced in a tweet: “After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!” He made it official on March 25 following a meeting with Netanyahu. 

    Trump’s announcement was welcomed by Israelis across the political spectrum and the Wall Street Journal noted, “Recognizing the Golan sends a message to Russia, Syria’s patron, that the U.S. recognizes that the civil war has changed Syrian reality. There is no returning to a nonexistent status quo ante.”

    Southern Border Incursions
    Israel seized control of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria in December 2024, following the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in an insurgent offensive. Israeli officials initially described the move as temporary to protect their borders from militant groups, but more recently top Israeli officials have said they plan to occupy the buffer zone in Syria indefinitely.
    • Daraa & Quneitra: Tensions have flared near the UNDOF-patrolled buffer zone as Israeli forces carried out military incursions and shelling in villages such as Abdin.  Abdin is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located west of Daraa. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Abdin had a population of 1,454 in the 2004 census. The village was listed in 16th-century Ottoman tax records.
    • The UN-patrolled buffer zone refers to "the Area of Separation (AOS) between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights, established following the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Maintained by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), the narrow, 80-kilometer-long demilitarized strip extends along two separation lines."
    •  Residents and local youth have actively resisted these patrols with roadblocks and stone-throwing , leading to artillery fire and retaliatory engagements .  The Syrian Foreign Ministry alongside governments in Jordan, Qatar, and the Gulf Cooperation Council have formally condemned the operations as a violation of sovereignty .Fighting has escalated between the central government's army and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast. The renewed combat operations have occasionally impacted nearby detention facilities, drawing international concern as global partners work to repatriate citizens previously held in refugee camps. 
    Economy & Recovery

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