Henry Ford's Attitude Towards Jews

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After reading Henry Ford, "The International Jew: The World's Problem," one may find that Ford's attitude towards Jews is not very different from those attitudes expressed within Chapter VII of The Jew in the Modern World. Ford considers Jews to be greed driven "swarms...and the world's enigma" (513). The comments and arguments of Bauer, Marx, Wagner, Stoecker, Treitschke, and Mommsen all recognize those qualities of the Jews that give them economic and political advantage within the countries they populate; lifestyles, morals, and traditions.

Ford's opinion was written between eighty to forty years after the aforementioned anti-Semitic comments were published. Ford focuses his attention upon the Jewish power gained within the world of business, "he is business...the Jew is supremely gifted for business" (513) His view and those of Stoecker, Bauer, and Mommsen, that blame the Jews, who create national misfortune, practice social abuses with an inherent lack of morals, all build to create Ford's perception, "Jewish solidarity renders it difficult to measure Gentile and Jewish achievements by the same standard" (513). All of these men encompass the belief that Jews are ultimately a threat, and a threat that if not acted upon could lead to problems to a nation socially, politically, economically, and religiously.

Ford's underhanded assault upon Jews is also his unusual attempt at motivating the Gentiles. It is clear that Ford maintains his prejudice, but he does so by highlighting the strengths that he sees within the Jewish people. Ford also calls Jews, "he and his" which retains the social separation of the time, implying that the Jewish man leads their cause. Henry Ford, founder and owner of the Ford Motor Company m...

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...king that prevents them from mentioning the one social value that binds all Jews together; education. It is much easier to criticize Judaism and try to blame or change their culture. Ford suggests that Jews are born with some sort of business `gift' and that Jews will not settle for menial positions of work. With his own newspaper, Henry Ford attempted to instill jealousy and to incite anger within his readers. I can only wonder why such a financial giant and visionary was unable to encourage his Gentile followers to emphasize educational values to their children, just as Jewish families do? He chooses the simple road, described in his article. How many of the 97% Gentile population might one need to harness and control the 3% of Jewish population? To the mad and barbaric, future leader of Germany named Hitler, the answer became disturbingly sick, but true.

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