Catholic-Jewish Conflict and Cooperation: The Controversy over the March 1933 Anti-Nazi Rally in New York City

• In Event: Conflict and Protest

Abstract

The first major protest organized by major American Jewish organizations was planned for Madison Square Garden in March 1933. Jewish groups sought to make the event nonsectarian to magnify its appeal and influence. To that end, they endeavored to enlist prominent local leaders of the Catholic Church to participate as speakers. The response of Catholic officials to these Jewish invitations were shaped by a variety of religious, social and political factors which would also shape the church’s response to the intensified Nazi persecution of the late 1930s and genocide in the 1940s. The manner in which the protest was covered in the diocesan press sheds additional light on the complex array of factors that Catholic officials weighed. These circumstances impacted relations between Jews and Catholics in New York City and beyond for years to come.

Author

• Rafael Medoff, The David Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies