The International Jew


The International Jew is a four-volume set of antisemitic booklets or pamphlets originally published and distributed in the early 1920s by the Dearborn Publishing Company, which was owned by Henry Ford, the American industrialist and automobile manufacturer.
The books are to be distinguished from The International Jew: The World's Problem which was a headline in The Dearborn Independent, and is also the name of a collection of articles serialized in The Dearborn Independent.

Background

At the beginning of 1920, Ford's personal newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, was languishing in subscriptions and losing money. Ford and his personal secretary, Ernest G. Liebold, began to discuss a series of articles on "The Jewish Question."
While it was Liebold who claimed to have come up with the title, The International Jew, he turned to "the walking dictionary" William J. Cameron, for most of the writing. For 91 issues, the weekly paper announced a variety of Jewish-evil-influenced major stories in its headlines.
Editor E. G. Pipp left the Independent in April 1920 in disgust with the planned antisemitic articles, which began in May. Ford did not write the articles. He expressed his opinions verbally to Liebold, and to Cameron, who replaced Pipp as editor. Cameron had the main responsibility for expanding these opinions into article form. Liebold was responsible for collecting more material to support the articles.
The most popular and aggressive stories were then chosen to be reprinted into four volumes called The International Jew. The first volume was published in November 1920 as an anthology of articles that had been published in the Independent from May 22 to October 2, 1920. The original print run of the first edition was estimated to be between 200,000 and 500,000 copies. Three additional volumes were published over the next 18 months.
Liebold never copyrighted The International Jew and therefore had no control over anyone else publishing it themselves. The book was ultimately translated into 16 languages, including six editions in Germany between 1920 and 1922, and has remained in the public domain.

Content

After publication in the periodical, the articles were compiled into a four volume set as follows:

Volume 1: ''The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem'' (1920)

Chapters
  1. The Jew in Character and Business
  2. Germany's Reaction Against the Jew
  3. Jewish History in the United States
  4. The Jewish Question—Fact or Fancy?
  5. Anti-Semitism—Will It Appear in the U.S.?
  6. Jewish Question Breaks Into the Magazines
  7. Arthur Brisbane Leaps to the Help of Jewry
  8. Does a Definite Jewish World Program Exist?
  9. The Historic Basis of Jewish Imperialism
  10. An Introduction to the "Jewish Protocols"
  11. "Jewish" Estimate of Gentile Human Nature
  12. "Jewish Protocols" Claim Partial Fulfillment
  13. "Jewish" Plan to Split Society by "Ideas"
  14. Did the Jews Foresee the World War?
  15. Is the Jewish "Kahal" the Modern "Soviet"?
  16. How the "Jewish Question" Touches the Farm
  17. Does Jewish Power Control the World Press?
  18. Does This Explain Jewish Political Power?
  19. The All-Jewish Mark on "Red Russia"
  20. Jewish Testimony in Favor of Bolshevism

    Volume 2: ''Jewish Activities in the United States'' (1921)

Chapters
  1. How Jews in the U.S. Conceal Their Strength
  2. Jewish Testimony on "Are Jews a Nation?"
  3. Jew Versus Non-Jew in New York Finance
  4. The High and Low of Jewish Money Power
  5. "Disraeli of America"—A Jew of Super-Power
  6. The Scope of Jewish Dictatorship in the U.S.
  7. Jewish Copper Kings Reap Rich War-Profits
  8. Jewish Control of the American Theater
  9. The Rise of the First Jewish Theatrical Trust
  10. How Jews Capitalized a Protest Against Jews
  11. The Jewish Aspect of the "Movie" Problem
  12. Jewish Supremacy in Motion Picture World
  13. Rule of the Jewish Kehillah Grips New York
  14. The Jewish Demand for "Rights" in America
  15. "Jewish Rights" Clash With American Rights
  16. "Jewish Rights" to Put Studies Out of Schools
  17. Disraeli—British Premier, Portrays the Jews
  18. Taft Once Tried to Resist Jews—and Failed
  19. When Editors Were Independent of the Jews
  20. Why the Jews Dislike the Morgenthau Report
  21. Jews Use the Peace Conference to Bind Poland
  22. The Present Status of the Jewish Question

    Volume 3: ''Jewish Influence in American Life'' (1921)

Chapters
  1. The Jews and the "Religious Persecution" Cry
  2. Are the Jews Victims or Persecutors?
  3. Jewish Gamblers Corrupt American Baseball
  4. Jewish Degradation of American Baseball
  5. Jewish Jazz Becomes Our National Music
  6. How the Jewish Song Trust Makes You Sing
  7. Jewish Hot-Beds of Bolshevism in the U.S.
  8. Jew Trades Link With World Revolutionaries
  9. Will Jewish Zionism Bring Armageddon?
  10. How the Jews Use Power—By an Eyewitness
  11. How Jews Ruled and Ruined Tammany Hall
  12. Jew Wires Direct Tammany's Gentile Puppets
  13. B'nai B'rith Leader Discusses the Jews
  14. Dr. Levy, a Jew, Admits His People's Error
  15. Jewish Idea in American Monetary Affairs
  16. Jewish Idea Molded Federal Reserve Plan
  17. Jewish Idea of Central Bank for America
  18. How Jewish International Finance Functions
  19. Jewish Power and America's Money Famine

    Volume 4: ''Aspects of Jewish Power in the United States'' (1922)

Chapters
  1. How Jews Gained American Liquor Control
  2. Gigantic Jewish Liquor Trust and Its Career
  3. The Jewish Element in Bootlegging Evil
  4. Angles of Jewish Influence in American Life
  5. The Jews' Complaint Against "Americanism"
  6. The Jewish Associates of Benedict Arnold
  7. Benedict Arnold and Jewish Aid in Shady Deal
  8. Arnold and His Jewish Aids at West Point
  9. The Gentle Art of Changing Jewish Names
  10. Jewish "Kol Nidre" and "Eli, Eli" Explained
  11. Jews as New York Magistrates See Them
  12. Jews Are Silent, the National Voice Is Heard
  13. What Jews Attempted When they Had Power
  14. The Jewish Question in Current Testimony
  15. America's Jewish Enigma—Louis Marshall
  16. The Economic Plans of International Jews
  17. A Jew Sees His People As Others See Them
  18. Candid Address to Jews on the Jewish Problem
  19. An Address to "Gentiles" on the Jewish Problem

    1927 libel suit

A libel lawsuit, brought by San Francisco lawyer and Jewish farm cooperative organizer Aaron Sapiro in response to antisemitic remarks, led Ford to close the Independent in December 1927. News reports at the time quoted him as being shocked by the content and having been unaware of its nature.
During the trial, William J. Cameron, the editor of Ford's "Own Page", testified that Ford had nothing to do with the editorials even though they were under his byline. Cameron testified at the libel trial that he never discussed the content of the pages nor sent them to Ford for his approval.
Investigative journalist Max Wallace doubted the veracity of this claim and wrote that James M. Miller, a former Dearborn Independent employee, swore under oath that Ford had told him he intended to expose Sapiro.
According to Michael Barkun, "That Cameron would have continued to publish such controversial material without Ford's explicit instructions seemed unthinkable to those who knew both men. Mrs. Stanley Ruddiman, a Ford family intimate, remarked that 'I don't think Mr. Cameron ever wrote anything for publication without Mr. Ford's approval.'"

Influence on Nazi anti-Semitism

Ford's :de:Der internationale Jude|International Jew was translated into German in 1922 and cited as an influence by Baldur von Schirach, one of the Nazi leaders, who stated "I read it and became anti-Semitic. In those days this book made such a deep impression on my friends and myself because we saw in Henry Ford the representative of success, also the exponent of a progressive social policy. In the poverty-stricken and wretched Germany of the time, youth looked toward America, and apart from the great benefactor, Herbert Hoover, it was Henry Ford who to us represented America." Ford is the only American mentioned in Hitler's Mein Kampf, but he is only mentioned once in one sentence, where Hitler writes "Every year makes them more and more the controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions; only a single great man, Ford, to their fury still maintains full independence." The second edition of the book removed reference to Ford.

George F. Green and the Christian Nationalist Crusade

In June 1949, a 174-page, one-volume abridgement of the text appeared, titled The International Jew, subtitled "The World's Foremost Problem", edited by the British journalist and fascist George F. Green who served as the editor of the Independent Nationalist. The book was sold in the United States by the Christian Nationalist Crusade.

Secondary sources