AUTO FOCUS: Henry Ford has long been assailed as an anti-Semite and lauded as the father of the assembly line.
Posted on 06/30/2003 5:28:30 PM PDT by SJackson
Despite its founder's anti-Semitism, Jews have always been part of the Ford Motor Company. Now, as the car maker celebrates its 100th birthday, some are questioning if anti-Semitism ever existed.
AUTO FOCUS: Henry Ford has long been assailed as an anti-Semite and lauded as the father of the assembly line.
One hundred years after its founding, and following a whirlwind of publicity and hoopla surrounding its Centennial observance, Ford Motor Company remains a powerful worldwide industrial force, and its famous founder remains an enigma to the Jewish community.
The company, incorporated June 16, 1903, has grown from its first full plant at the corner of Piquette and Beaubien streets on Detroit's east side to a far-flung operation with plants and offices around the world, 340,000 employees and sales of about seven million cars and trucks a year. It has survived hundreds of car companies that have dropped by the "roadside" during that time to become the world's second largest automotive manufacturer.
Along the way, the now Dearborn-based company has helped make the fortunes of hundreds of southeast Michigan business people and professionals -- many of them Jewish.
Founder Henry Ford's legacy has brought the fifth-working generation into the company; the Fords have become the closest thing to royalty of any family in the Detroit area. Henry Ford was the quintessential American folk hero and pioneering industrialist, the man whose mass-production techniques made cars affordable and "put the nation on wheels."
Doubling the average factory worker's pay to $5 a day in 1914 revolutionized the industry and started a "gold rush" to Detroit by thousands around the country, including many Jewish immigrants from the East as well as African Americans from the farms of the South. Fortune Magazine named Ford the greatest businessman of the 20th century.
But Ford, the genius, also was dubbed "Crazy Henry" by many of his associates for developing wacky schemes -- and he also freely espoused anti-Jewish sentiments. He blamed the world's problems on the "Jewish money-lenders" and tapped into his immense financial resources to anti-Semitic pursuits.
For example, he conducted an anti-Semitic tirade for 91 consecutive weeks from 1920 to 1927 in his personal newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. He also is mentioned positively in Hitler's autobiography, Mein Kampf, and received a medal from the Nazi tyrant.
Making amends
His descendants have worked hard to counter Henry Ford's anti-Semitism. His grandson, the late Henry Ford II, and his great-grandson, William Clay Ford Jr., who now is the company's chairman and CEO, have made "diversity" and "inclusion" watchwords at Ford Motor Company. In fact, Ford is hailed in the July issue of Diversity Inc. as the No. 1 company in America for diversity, and the only auto firm on the magazine's top 50 list.
Henry Ford II was at the forefront of the nation's civil rights movement and Affirmative Action program in the 1960s, as the company acquired minority employees, suppliers and dealers. Almost half of the more than 500 African American car dealers in the United States today sell the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands.
"Henry Ford II was always very upset by his grandfather's approach to Judaism and all of his anti-Semitic actions," says A. Alfred Taubman, who was one of Henry Ford II's best friends. "That's the main reason he became a great friend of the Jewish people and gave $100,000 every year to the old United Jewish Appeal. I think the friendship that Max Fisher and I developed with him really helped turn things around in that respect at the Ford Motor Company."
Taubman, 84, retired chairman of the Taubman Realty Group in Detroit, has returned to his Oakland County office after spending almost a year in a Minnesota prison following his conviction in 2001 of price fixing in connection with his Sotheby's Galleries in New York.
"Henry was a partner in Sotheby's and in our real estate venture at the Irvine Ranch in California," Taubman says. "In turn, I was involved with him in the development of Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit, and we all made investments in Israel. We've dedicated three parks to him in Israel."
Henry Ford II died at 70 in 1987, a month after Taubman and his wife had planned to meet him and his third wife in Europe to celebrate the birthday. Fisher, 94, one of World Jewry's most admired leaders, is recuperating from a broken hip at his home and was unavailable for comment.
Hard to know why
Ford Motor Company's current official corporate historian is Jewish, and he tried to explain the enigma surrounding the founder. "It may sound strange, but I don't think old Henry Ford was a true anti-Semite," declares Bob Kreipke, a 28-year Ford employee. "If he was, and the company had carried out his anti-Semitic antagonism against everyone, then I never would have worked for the company. I think he had some run-ins with a few Jewish bankers in the old days and that touched off some anti-Semitic tendencies, or he was influenced by some mean-spirited assistants.
"But how does anyone explain his hiring of Jewish workers and doing business with so many Jewish suppliers and Jewish business people in general? Don't you think he would have issued an edict prohibiting Jews from the premises, and banning any dealings with companies operated by Jews?"
In his book Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate (Public Affairs), Jewish author Neil Baldwin theorizes that Ford developed a hatred for Jews while studying McGuffey's Eclectic Readers, which contained Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, relating the antics of Shylock, the Jewish money-lender.
Rabbi Leo Franklin of Temple Beth El in Michigan, one of several Jews with whom Ford carried on puzzling relationships over the years, even organized a national lobbying effort to eliminate the teaching of The Merchant of Venice in public schools. Ford and Rabbi Franklin were neighbors on Detroit's Edison Street before Ford built his legendary Fair Lane Estate in Dearborn. Ford tried to curry the rabbi's favor by giving him a Model T car as "just a gift to a friend," which Rabbi Franklin accepted. He then gave the car back to Ford after Ford reprinted in his newspaper The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic document spelling out alleged secret plans of Jewish leaders seeking to attain world domination.
"And how about Albert Kahn?" asks Kreipke.
Kahn, the son of a German rabbi, was dubbed, deservedly so, as "Henry Ford's architect." He was as important to the field of architecture as Henry Ford was to the automotive world. They were both workaholics and shared a mutual business respect for each other despite their religious differences.
Kahn designed and built the Ford family homes, plus hospitals, schools and museums, and about 1,000 plants worldwide. This included Ford's Highland Park plant, home of the Model T, and the 600-acre Rouge complex that recently underwent a $2 billion renovation, including a new visitor center and factory roof gardens
Al Rothenberg, a Jewish retired automotive journalist, recalls a eulogy Ford gave for Kahn, who died at 80 in 1942: "Albert Kahn was one of the best men I ever knew. The fruits of his genius are in every part of the world. He was a man of fine taste, the soul of integrity, a public-spirited citizen and absolutely loyal to principle."
Old Henry's impact
Hymie Cutler, 80, a longtime activist in the Jewish community, wants to make sure Jews remember Henry Ford's anti-Semitism, although he agrees Henry Ford II and other Ford family members tried their best to rectify the elder Ford's mistakes by using new business practices and investing in Israel. Cutler, whose father, Carl, came to Detroit to earn the company's $5 a day and was a foreman at the Highland Park plant, is a retired electrical engineer with 15 patents.
"There were many stories about anti-Semitism at Ford offices and plants, and that just shouldn't have happened," he says. A staunch Zionist, he frequently runs local newspaper ads to explain his views on issues in the Middle East.
If there was consistent animosity between Ford Motor Company and the Jews, it can't be proved by talking to Edward C. Levy Jr. or Jonathan Holtzman. Levy is the son of Edward C. Levy Sr., a trucking entrepreneur and the founder of the Edward C. Levy Co., a firm that thrived on hauling away steel slag from plants. Holtzman is the grandson of Joseph Holtzman, one of the founders of the Holtzman & Silverman Co. that built about 25,000 suburban homes for workers at Ford and other auto manufacturers.
Levy Jr., 71, president and CEO of the current international firm that provides road-building materials, and still hauls slag (a steel byproduct) from the Rouge, said he disdains publicity, but says there always has been an excellent relationship between his company and Ford. That relationship has extended to a warm feeling between the Levy family and the Ford family.
Levy Sr. visited the old Ford family farm and rejected Henry Ford's request to invest in the "new company" in 1903. But he wanted to help Ford with his trucks and gave his own company a boost by starting to haul waste from Ford plants. The Levy Co. was one of the first investors in Renaissance Center.
"I don't think Henry Ford was as much of an anti-Semite as people have said through the years," asserts Jonathan Holtzman. He is CEO of Village Green Companies in Farmington Hills, which operates about 30,000 apartment buildings in the Midwest. Like historian Kreipke, Holtzman believes if Ford were a true anti-Semite, he would have given instructions not to hire or buy from Jews. "Henry Ford did a wonderful thing for Jewish businessmen in the old days, and we appreciate it," Holtzman adds. "Our company wouldn't exist today if it were not for Henry Ford."
Joseph Holtzman, Jonathan's grandfather, was lured to Detroit from St. Louis by Ford's $5-a-day offer in 1914. However, he couldn't handle the physical demands of the job and eventually went into real estate and started to build homes in 1919.
High-ranking Jews
Banning of Jews from Ford is certainly not evident in the company's employment rolls. Jews hold jobs mostly in engineering, research, finance and the legal areas. And there usually are at least a few Jewish vice presidents.
Mervyn Manning was the company's first Jewish vice president, retiring 10 years ago after 37 years of service. He headed operations in Latin America, Australia, and the tractor division. He said he experienced no disadvantage as a Jew during his career at the company, having only a minor incident of anti-Semitism with a fellow employee at the beginning. "It really was no big deal then and apparently it's no big deal now," he says. "As long as you did your job properly, you got promoted. Ford always has been a modern-thinking company."
When Manning was general manager of Ford Tractor Operations, he recalls Ford being boycotted by Arab nations for doing business in Israel. "But that didn't bother Henry Ford II at all. He ignored those countries and refused to back down. He was a great person to work for ... a very charming man."
The two highest-ranking Jews at Ford Motor Company today have group vice president status. They are Mark Fields, 41, chairman and CEO of Ford's Premier Auto Group (Jaguar, Volvo, etc.), and Martin Zimmerman, 57, vice president of corporate affairs. There is one Jew on the board of directors, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin.
Born Mark Finkelman in New Jersey, Fields went to Rutgers University, worked at IBM, then joined Ford in 1989. He rose quickly through the ranks to become president and CEO of Mazda in Japan, of which Ford owns controlling interest. After straightening out Mazda's plants, launching some nifty new products and getting the company on the road to profitability, Fields was tapped by Ford management for the Premier Auto Group job, based in London. He says he's never experienced any anti-Semitism at Ford, even when he was living in Hiroshima and colleagues were shocked to learn he is Jewish.
Zimmerman, with degrees from Dartmouth and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined Ford in 1987 as the company's chief economist. Before that, he was chairman of the Business Economics Department at the University of Michigan's Graduate School of Business Administration.
"Anti-Semitism is a non-issue at Ford now," he says. "The company does not care about a person's ethnicity or religion, but looks for talent, and promotes people on the basis of performance. Ford has a high record of diversity without rival in the automotive business."
Hard to erase
The latest book about the Ford Motor Company -- Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company and a Century of Progress (Viking, $24.95) by historian Douglas Brinkley -- was commissioned especially for the company's centennial celebration this month. It really sheds no new light on the Jewish issue, mostly citing author Baldwin's book as the authority on that subject.
In fact, Ford Centennial officials were so irritated that Brinkley spent so many pages reiterating the anti-Semitism subject, rather than devoting more space to the recent Ford years, that they're not going all out to publicize the book. In fact, Brinkley's book presentation at last week's Centennial celebration was canceled.
This is along the lines of the same paranoia that has gripped Ford dealers in the heavily Jewish sections of New York and Miami Beach through the years. Embarrassed by the anti-Semitism reputation, some over the years dropped the word "Ford" from their advertising, simply trying to sell vehicles as Model T's, V-8's, Thunderbirds, and Mustangs. This type of thinking also has created the "closet Jew" syndrome among a number of Jews at the company. Like many movie and music stars today, they just won't admit they're Jewish, fearing it will affect their career.
What's next?
Amidst the excitement and splendor of last week's Centennial celebration, the 700 registered news media at the event kept talking about the "brutal" road ahead for the company and as it enters its second 100 years with a largely untested management team.
The company lost $6.4 billion in 2001, mainly because of the economic downturn, over-capacity at its plants, and costly incentives. Management started slashing costs, laying off employees, and planning to close plants.
But a profit of close to $900 million in the first quarter of this year, plus recent increases in market share and quality ratings, hinted at a possible spreadsheet turnaround. Ford is preparing to introduce 65 new products in North America over the next five years.
At the company's 48th annual shareholders meeting last Monday -- Ford went public in 1956 -- Chairman Bill Ford Jr. told an overflow audience that the comeback "is on track and working."
Maybe Ford people, past and present, want to forget, once and for all, the foibles of the company's founder. Author Baldwin was quoted in a newspaper recently as saying: "Anti-Semitism at Ford died with old Henry Ford." Of that, there is no doubt. The question that remains unanswered is: How much of it was really there in the first place.
Henry Ford II was at the forefront of the nation's civil rights movement and Affirmative Action program in the 1960s, as the company acquired minority employees, suppliers and dealers. Almost half of the more than 500 African American car dealers in the United States today sell the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands.
What in the sam hill does this have to do with making amends for anti-Semitism???
Henry Ford was anti-Catholic as well as anti-Jewish, but the anti-Semitic right wing (even the "Catholic" part of it) has never held it against him. Apparently his anti-Semitism was enough to make up for it.
Interestingly, radical populist Charles Lindbergh Sr. (father of the aviator and Nazi apologist) was also rabidly anti-Catholic, but don't expect the Birch Society to tell you.
No, and neither did Saddam Heussein.
Yeah, I'll bet they were all a bunch of Jews. Yup. The poor little Russians were just victims of the big bad Jews.
RusIvan -- "Since Apr 03, 2003"
Why don't you go back to "Original Dissent?" There you and your fellow National Bolsheviks can discuss what a great guy Stalin was having Trotsky killed.
Do you know what the Jews did to the poor little Egyptians, RusIvan? You know, the plagues? Why don't you tell us what a Communist Moses helping to bring that about?
BTW, according to an otherwise glowing piece on Henry Ford that once appeared in American Opinion, Henry Ford built the Soviet Union's first truck plant. But the author gave him a free pass, saying he was just naive. After all, he was such a foe of the "conspiracy." Now, if a Jew had built that plant . . . !
There you go again, bashing Republicans. Have you no shame? Then again...
The "Jewish" Soviet Union then went on to show how "Jewish" it was by being the number one opponent of Israel and number one supporter of the Arabs in the entire world.
Why don't you illegal immigrants go back where you came from? At least try to get your pallies at "Original Dissent" to teach you English.
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