On 20 February, 1939 a Nazi rally was held in Madison Square Garden, New York.
The rally was organised by the German American Bund, just two days before George Washington’s birthday anniversary.
Some 20,000 people attended the rally and witnessed a huge portrait of the former great American President with swastikas on either side.
Opening the formal proceedings, national secretary of the Bund, James Wheeler-Hill, remarked:
“If George Washington were alive today, he would be friends with Adolf Hitler.”
Who Were These People?
The German American Bund was founded in 1936 and was the most influential pro-Nazi organisation in the United States during its time. It collapsed in 1941 when America entered World War II.
The Bund promoted false ideas that all Jews were enemies, both of the United States and Germany, spreading the lie that Jews controlled politics, the economies, the media and other areas of society.
Furthermore, they were blamed for the founding of communism.
All Jews are communists, these Nazis claimed.
During their peak period of activity, membership of the Bund grew to around 25,000 financial members.
To qualify for membership applicants had to claim they had no Jewish or African-American ancestry.
Each member had to purchase a copy of Mein Kampf and proceeds used to swell the funds of the Bund.
The German American Bund had a vision of the United States which was racist in the extreme.
White Christian supremacy.
Expulsion of Jews from Labor Unions and Government.
Outlawing communism in the United States.
Stopping the flow of refugees.
Isolating the US from world affairs.
They even claimed that Franklin D. Roosevelt was secretly Jewish, changing his name from Rosenfelt.
Lessons From History
There’s nothing new under the sun. You don’t need a college education to understand that claim.
Antisemitism goes back to biblical times, as what goes around comes around, and the world today is spinning at an alarmingly troublesome rate.
Once again, antisemitism is rife.
It is patently clear that the lessons from history are meaningless when it comes to educating people who should know better, for instance students of universities in America.
Billions of people who have derived benefit from some of the world’s finest inventions from Jewish scientists, entrepreneurs and health-care specialists are quite happy to accept the lies being thrust at them by unscrupulous terrorists and demonstrate, often with violence.
It seems that it’s fashionable to become antisemitic in some countries around the world. A good way to get free publicity!
For generations the Jewish World has tried its utmost to cool and control antisemitism, but nothing has really changed.
Our Best Hope
Today, there is no such term as a Jewish refugee.
Israel is home to all Jewish people, wherever they live.
Yet, though Jewish lives can be saved by immigration, antisemitism is likely to remain active in one form or another in the Jewish diaspora.
It’s been that way for 2000 years and we must be practical, rather than look through rose-coloured glasses.
But our best hope is the hope that in Israel we continue to grow, to reach out for a peaceful region and to show the rest of the world that the truth comes in facts and achievements, not in slander and lies.
It is a challenge demanding considerable effort and ingenuity, but we have faced many threatening issues in the past and proven that the Jewish lighthouse will continue to shine brightly, even on the horizon.
