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. )