Why Jews Are Still Turning to the Courts |
This week, I sat in the Al Green Theatre at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival and watched Sapiro v. Ford: The Jew Who Sued Henry Ford. Like many in the audience, I expected a documentary about history. But as the father of a Jewish student now suing her own university over its failure to protect Jewish students, I could not watch it as history alone. Instead, I watched something disturbingly current.
The film tells the story of Aaron Sapiro, a Jewish lawyer who took on Henry Ford, one of the most powerful men in America. Ford was not simply an industrialist. He was a cultural icon. His wealth gave him influence. His name gave his opinions authority.
And he used that authority to spread hate.
Ford bought the The Dearborn Independent. Through the newspaper, Ford spread some of the oldest antisemitic tropes in history, portraying Jews as secret manipulators of finance, politics, culture and international war. The hatred was packaged, repeated and distributed with the same discipline that had made his name synonymous with modern production.
The scale was staggering. At its peak, The Dearborn Independent reached hundreds of thousands of readers across the United States. It was sold at newsstands and circulated through Ford dealerships.
Aaron Sapiro became one of Ford’s targets cast as part of a supposed Jewish conspiracy.
So in 1925, Sapiro sued.
His lawsuit did not end antisemitism. No lawsuit can. But it did accomplish something important. It forced a reckoning. After........