The ADL in 1933 & Berlusconi now
by Lenni Brenner
9/19/2003
BrennerL21@aol.com
[If anyone asked informed Americans to name one Zionist organization, they
would most likely cite the Anti-Defamation League. Its ads, and letters by
Abe Foxman, its National Director, appear routinely in the New York Times
and other publications.
It wasn't Zionist in the '30s. It was then just a desk in the office of the
B'nai B'rith, (Sons of the Covenant), a fraternal order established in the
19th century by immigrants from Germany. The order represented the American
Jewish upper class, which didn't come over to Zionism until its acceptance
by Washington in 1948, after the Holocaust.
Today, the ADL is the public face of B'nai B'rith, but in the '30s, the
order spoke for the ADL. Now the ADL pretends to be the shock troops in the
fight against anti-Semitism, but readers of this 1933 editorial statement
will see why it never dares to mention what it did against Hitler, and the
surge of American Jew-hatred, in the wake of Hitler's 1933 triumph.
The document takes on special relevance now, as the ADL scandalizes the Jews
of the world as it prepares to give an award to Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi, who has just announced that "Mussolini never killed
anyone, Mussolini sent people away on vacation, in internment," when, in
reality, he helped Hitler murder thousands of Italian Jews.
The text below can be found in 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the
Nazis, Edited by Lenni Brenner and published by Barricade Books.]
"B'nai B'rith and the German-Jewish Tragedy," B'nai B'rith Magazine,
May 1933.
Criticism is heard: B'nai B'rith did not join the public protests against
the German-Jewish tragedy! The power of B'nai B'rith was not exploited
sufficiently in the public press! What an opportunity B'nai B'rith had to
keep its fame on the front pages in this crisis!
Such things have been said.
The members of this organization have cause to be proud of their affiliation
with a Jewish body that obscured its own prestige in order to serve its
German brethren the better. Not the glory of B'nai B'rith but the safety of
German Jews was paramount at the moment and quietly B'nai B'rith moved to
the defense of these brethren through the strong hand of the State
Department.
What was the position of American Jewry in the tragic hour? It was as if a
robber had entered one's house and seized one's child and held it for a
shield... "You shoot at me and you kill your child!"
What does a man do in such a pass? Shoot? He puts aside his pistol. He
considers other means of meeting the crisis.
With the Hitler government threatening reprisals against Jews, should B'nai
B'rith have rushed forward with loud protests? In the eyes of the unthinking
this might have enhanced the prestige of Bınai Bırith... "How courageous is
B'nai B'rith!" they might have said.
B'nai B'rith puts aside the opportunity for valor (5,000 miles from the
scene of danger!) and with what power is in its hand and in co-operation
with other Jewish agencies, set in motion the diplomatic efforts that are
already historic. Aye, B'nai B'rith might have thrown itself alone into the
breach so that it could be said of it, "Singlehanded this organization
battles for the rights of Jewry." But B'nai B'rith greatly desires unity in
Israel and it marched with other organizations and still so marches.
If there has not been complete unity in Israel in this crisis, it is no
fault of B'nai B'rith.
Weeks before the German-Jewish tragedy became the pain of all Jewry, B'nai
B'rith, conscious of forebodings, took steps, met with the leaders of other
organizations, considered what was best to do, having always in mind that
nothing ought to be done that would endanger rather than mitigate the
unhappy situation of the German Jews.
This policy directs and will continue to direct every move of B'nai B'rith
acting in co-operation with the American Jewish Committee. We have no
quarrel with other organizations that went their own way to make public
protest. We believe, however, that time will show that the policy of B'nai
B'rith is founded on better wisdom. We regret that in the momentous hour
American Jewry is not united.
Even those who were at first hot for public protest have come to see that
discretion is the better part of valor in an hour when lives are in the
balance. They have announced that "In deference to the wishes of the State
Department" they "refrain from making (further) comment on the tragic
situation of the Jews in Germany."
For B'nai B'rith there was, besides, a poignant special cause to restrain it
from action that might seem rash in the moment. It has fraternal ties with
many Jews in Germany where the finest of Jewry is included in the membership
of B'nai B'rith. Hostile public words or actions by B'nai B'rith in America
might have reflected dangerously on the B'nai B'rith of Germany of whom it
might have been said by their enemies, "They have instigated their fellow
members in America against us."
The conscience of B'nai B'rith could never have acquitted itself had any
ill-considered action by the Order in America caused injury to our brethren
in Germany.
And what of the future? It may be answered that B'nai B'rith in co-operation
with the American Jewish Committee is alert; that things are being carefully
done; that perfect unity of speech and action exists between the B'nai
B'rith and the American Jewish Committee.
If the Jews desire the unity of all Israel in America in the presence of
this tragedy they can have it by demanding it of the organizations that
represent them. As for B'nai B'rith, it feels that its action in this crisis
will make a worthy chapter of its history.