By Barry M. Lando

November 01, 2018 "Information Clearing House" -  Reading the horrified reactions to the bloody attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, one has the impression that the assault was carried out by a crazed individual operating from the most deranged fringe of America’s alt-right: a product of the brutal politics of Donald Trump and social media run amok. The fact is that, though America would dearly love to forget it, anti-Semitism has long been deeply embedded in the U.S.

In the Spring of 1942, the sociologist David Riesman described American anti-Semitism as “slightly below the boiling point.”

Indeed, the despicable image of an American president slamming shut his country’s Southern border to desperate refugees fleeing the violence of their homeland is nothing new. The same tragic tale played out in the United States in the spring of 1939, when Franklin Roosevelt was President: U.S. authorities refused to let a ship, the St. Louis, loaded with more than 900 passengers, most of them Jews attempting to escape from Germany, refused to let them dock in the U.S.

Already forbidden from landing in Cuba, the ship’s German captain Gustav Schroder (not a Jew), circled off the coast of Florida, hoping for permission to enter the United States.  But Secretary of State Cordell Hull advised President Franklin Roosevelt not to accept the Jews.  Still determined to save his passengers, Captain Schröder considered running aground along the U.S. coast to allow the refugees to escape.  But, again, acting on Cordell Hull’s instructions, US Coast Guard vessels shadowed the ship and prevented such a move.

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