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Letters They Wouldn't Publish
February 6, 2004
Letters to the Editor Moment 4710 41 St. NW Washington, D.C. 20016 Dear Editor: Hershel Shanks, commenting on the discovery that President Harry Truman expressed anti-Semitic sentiments in a previously-unknown diary entry, notes that Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen excused Truman on the grounds that "his actions in recognizing Israel speak a lot louder than his words" in the diary. But Truman's record of anti-Semitism is not confined to that single diary passage from 1947, in which he wrote that "the Jews have no sense of proportion," that "the Jews are very,very selfish," and that "neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the under dog." Prof. Michael Cohen's comprehensive study, Truman and Israel, published in 1991, documented many additional examples of Truman's bigotry--Truman had privately described New York City as a "kike town," referred to Eddie Jacobson as his "Jew clerk," and wrote to his wife, Bess, about someone in a poker game who had "screamed like a Jewish merchant." In another private letter, Truman complained of New York City: "This town has 8,000,000 people, 7,500,000 of 'em are of Israelitish extraction (400,000 wops and the rest are white people)." During one cabinet session in 1946, Truman had this to say about Jewish criticism of his Palestine policy: "If Jesus Christ couldn't satisfy the Jews while on earth, how the hell am I supposed to?" Did Truman's actions on Jewish matters really "speak louder than words," as columnist Richard Cohen contended? During the Holocaust, Truman showed no real interest in the plight of Europe's Jews. When a Missouri rabbi wrote to then-Senator Truman in 1943 to urge U.S. action to rescue Jewish refugees, Truman coldly replied: "I do not think it is the business of Senators who are not on the Foreign Relations Committee to dabble in matters which affect our relations with the Allies at this time ...it is of vital importance that the Jewish Congregations be patient and support wholeheartedly the foreign policy of our government" (the policy of refraining from taking any meaningful steps to aid refugees from Hitler). After the war, Truman did urge the British to admit 100,000 Holocaust survivors to Palestine--but he never took concrete steps to pressure London to admit them. He did grant diplomatic recognition to the State of Israel just minutes after the state was created--but he refused to send Israel weapons to defend itself against five invading Arab armies. The recently-revealed Truman diary passage is consistent with what we know of a man who, despite his personal friendship with several Jews and recognition of Israel, harbored deep anti-Jewish prejudices and was largely indifferent to the Nazi and Arab victimizations of the Jewish people. Sincerely,
Rafael Medoff, Ph.D.
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