A professor from Michigan State University discussed the origins of early 20th-century antisemitism in America and its effect on the modern day at the Dodd Center on Wednesday, April 2.
In 2022, MSU professor of history and Jewish studies Kirsten Fermaglich set out to uncover the significance of American antisemitism as a part of the National Archives Distinguished Fellowship. This research into governmental records led her to her presentation, “Filthy, UnAmerican, and Dangerous in Their Habits: Antisemitism and the Emergency Quota Act, 1918-1921.”
To Fermaglich, the history of American antisemitism has gone unresearched and undiscussed. She noted that while racism is a common theme in discussions of American history, antisemitism isn’t, and she planned to look for evidence of it.
“How significant was antisemitism in American history?” Fermaglich asked. “How significant was antisemitism in American immigration history?”
Fermaglich explained that American historians often describe historical antisemitism as being “private,” meaning it wasn’t overt. Fermaglich soon learned that antisemitism didn’t quite fly under the radar as effectively as it seemed to.
One of the most shocking pieces of evidence she had found was a 1920 report from the House of Representatives. This document is where the phrase “Filthy, un-American, and often dangerous in their habits” comes from.
“A lot of times, antisemitism is kind of coded. It’s really a code. And we were surprised by how much Jews were named, really identified,” Fermaglich said, noting that antisemitism is rarely said so openly. “You’re not always surprised, and it’s good to be surprised when you do research.
Fermaglich associated the rise of American antisemitism with the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. According to Fermaglich, Americans saw Bolsheviks and Jews as interchangeable and began to see Jewish people as communists.
“I found a lot of evidence that this belief permeates American culture and society,” Fermaglich said. “That they are all Bolsheviks, and they are looking to destroy capitalism.”
Additionally, many Jewish communities had been destroyed by World War I. When these poor, often diseased Jewish people began emigrating to the United States for help, Fermaglich said the white elites of the state department only saw them as “dirty and diseased and dangerous.”
Later, Fermaglich explained that a fabricated document known as “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” made its way to the United States and many U.S. officials believed its claim that Jews had a plot to take over the world.
This false belief, coupled with wealthy Jewish Americans helping poor Jewish Europeans move to the United States, led to an increased amount of American paranoia.
“This notion of conspiracy can really be a hallmark of antisemitism,” Fermaglich explained. From here, American officials created the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, which began banning people of certain nationalities from entering the country.
Fermaglich’s talk was presented in-person with an online option over Zoom. One of the people in the audience was Jackson Conlon, a fourth-semester UConn student majoring in psychology.
“I actually [attended the event] for an extra credit for history, but I actually found it really interesting at the end of it,” Conlon said. “I didn’t really know that all those things built up. I just wasn’t aware of a lot of the things that went on, so I thought it was really interesting.”
Photo by Connor Sharp/The Daily Campus.
Conlon noted that while he thought the history was interesting, he hadn’t heard much about it in his history classes. “I think it’s really interesting just to see, like, hear about those things in American history that people don’t really talk about.”
When answering questions on her talk, Fermaglich was asked how her research informs our understanding of modern antisemitism. She noted that she saw a similarity between today’s antisemitic language and the language of the 1920s.
“The language absolutely was stuff that you would see in social media; it did not feel distant at all,” Fermaglich said. “It really is the use of conspiracy, right, that I think is really significant. And is clearly underlining a lot of this work.”
Fermaglich has written two books, titled “A Rosenberg by Any Other Name” and “American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares,” both of which examine Jewish history in the 20th century.
The Dodd Center for Human Rights will be hosting their next talk, “Our Walled World: Identity & Separation in Deeply Divided Societies,” on April 12, presented by Dr. James Waller. According to the event page, this talk will be the “Inaugural Genocide Awareness Lecture at UConn for Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month.”