Albert Jay Nock, whose two recent articles in the Atlantic Monthly espoused the thesis that anti-Semitism is a result of the Jews being an Oriental people living in an Occidental environment, is a “proved and tested anti-Semite,” declares Rabbi Saul E. White of Temple Beth Sholem in San Francisco, in an article appearing today in the Emanu-el and Jewish Journal, published here.
Nock’s articles of the last ten years or so, are proof, says Rabbi White, that the two in the Atlantic Monthly are not occasioned by a “feeling of outrage against the growth of anti-Semitism in our country” but are rather a development of “an old hunch into a major thesis; and that “in days not so distant he did not look for fine feathers in which to cloak his vulgar anti-Semitism.”
Rabbi White reveals that in a book of essays entitled “On Doing the Right Thing,” published in 1928, Nock wrote: “In actual life they (the Jews) are dreadful people. I sometimes think that there will be record-breaking pogroms in New York some day and there are occasions even now when the most peace-loving person among us wishes he could send over a couple of sotnias of Cossacks to floor manage the subway rush.”
In a “Journal of These Days,” published in 1954, Nock, according to Rabbi White’s revelations, wrote:
“It is ironic that the offsprings of those who crucified Jesus are the ones who profit most by the seasonal sentiment of Christmas. But in the Jewish view Geshaft 1st immer Geshaft and most Christians are too dull-witted to perceive the anomaly.” In the same Journal he also writes: “This morning I was thinking of our newspapers here in New York as a typical echt Jewish enterprise for its peculiar quality of unscrupulousness and shabbiness.”
Addressing himself to “those who are disturbed by Mr. Nock’s adumbrations and prophecy of doom,” Rabbi White says, “it may be some comfort to know that he was expecting pogroms as early as 1928, and that his acute awareness of a dangerous Jewish problem which we are led to believe has come to him only yesterday, is dated in his “Journal of Our Times,” as December, 1933. For the past decade he has been waiting for disaster and catastrophe.
“I prefer the old Mr. Nock, the open and above-board anti-Semite, the one who yearned for the Cossacks and pogroms to Mr. Nock, the pseudo-philosopher of folk and country, the poor disciple of Goebbels and Rosenberg,” Rabbi White concludes.
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
