Visitors are invited to take a seat and read through the testimony of three Jewish federal workers brought before HUAC. How would we answer “un-American” charges brought against us? Remember, flash cards warn us, there was no presumption of innocence. / photo taken by Rachel Mauro
In 1948, the Committee of Un-American Activities (HUAC) published a booklet titled “100 Things You Should Know About Communism in the U.S.A.” They structured their literature in the form of Q&A.
“Could I start up a business and hire people to work for me?
To do so would be a crime and you would be severely punished.
Could I teach what I please with ‘academic freedom’?
You would only teach what Communists authorize you to teach. You would be asking for jail or death to try anything else.
…Could I have friends of my own choice as I do now?
No, except those approved by the Communists in charge of your life from cradle to grave.
…Why shouldn’t I turn Communist?
…Before you do, remember you will lose your independence, your propperty, and your freedom of mind.”
As always, political extremists don’t understand irony.
“Blacklisted: An American Story” is a special exhibit created by the Jewish Museum of Milwaulkee. It will be on display at the Capital Jewish Museum until September 7.
The exhibit chronicles the time of the mid-20th century Red Scare, when anti-communists in government targeted individuals with presumed communist sympathies. HUAC was specifically concerned about the movie industry, with a particular focus on the Jewish community.
Jews were scapegoated since the 1930s and 1940s, with isolationists labeling anti-fascist films as “a Jewish plot to push the country into war.” After the U.S. did enter WWII, films that were made with government approval were later labeled as communist agitation.
The FBI started screening films for subversion in 1942. Ayn Rand was hired as a guide for topics screenwriters should avoid. Still, many artists were targeted for their involvement in leftwing (communist and otherwise) activism. The Hollywood Ten, a group of directors and screenwriters, became infamous. These were “unfriendly” witnesses who, when dragged before the Congressional House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947, refused to cooperate. In 1950, they were sent to prison. (A related pamphlet from thier wives implored the public: “We are gravely concerned for our husbands, but…our deepest concern is for America iteself.”)
Another pamphlet on display, “New Dangers Facing the Jewish People,” highlighted an event by the (six) Jewish members of the ten in 1949. They spoke on the dangers of Naziism and Communism abroad, and how antisemitism fueled the blacklists at home. Senators like Pat McCarran (R-Na.) went after people of “miiddle European” ancestry, mostly Jews. His goal was to prove communist ties and to limit the immigration of Holocaust survivors.
Meanwhile, the U.S. started taking away passports from the “Blacklisted” as some, like the family of Ten screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, pictured in Mexico in 1949, tried to flee. (Another Q&A from “100 Things You Should Know About Communism:” “”Could I travel abroad or marry a foreigner? You could do nothing of the sort except with the permission of the Communists.”)
The multimedia portions of the exhibit are largely given over to movie clips later created by the comdemned. The curators posit certain themes–like endorsing unions in Salt of the Earth or opposing slavery in Spartacus.
Two of the films are explicitly Jewish in nature, and they made me think about how Judaism was flattened into a religion-only in the American mind. In Exodus a character pulls one over on an antisemitic Brit who claims he can spot a Jew from a mile away–but misses the one standing in front of his face. In Gentleman’s Agreement, Gregory Peck plays a lawwyer who explains to his son that Jews are Americans, too. “The people who go to that particular church are called Catholics, and there are people who go to different churches and they’re called Protestants, and there are people who go to different churches and they’re called Jews, only they call their churches temples or synagogues.” A powerful call for camaraderie in 1947 anyway.
Even more dynamic than the movies are the taped testimony from “unfriendly” Hollywood witnesses at the HUAC hearings. Like that of future Salt of the Earth director Herbert Bilberman who shouted over his opposition: “It has become very clear to me that the real purpose of this investigation…your purpose is to use this to disrupt the motion picture industry. To invade the right not only of me but of the producers to their thoughts and their opinions, and I will not permit this!”
Unfortunately the Hollywood executives were definitely spooked. Months after the Hollywood Ten hearings, they met at the Waldorf Hotel to discuss their options. Concerned about financial and political pressure, tey assented to police their emplpoyees for “un-American” activities. Louis B. Meyer defended this with “Our first job must be to protect the industry and draw the greatest amount of people into theaters.”
Loss of income led to some devestating consequences. “Blacklisted” individuals’ names were stricken from the films they worked on (in the 1980s, the Writers Guild of America restored some of those credits, and awarded pension increases.) Hundreds more people lost all or part of their livlihood. When Alvah Bessie, one of the Ten, died, his family blamed the stress of the “inquisition.”
For local flair, CJM highlights Washingtonians who were targeted. Millions of federal employees were asked to fill out loyalty forms between 1947 and 1953. Over 25,000 were investigated, with several hundred people fired or suspended from their jobs.
Sylvia Bernstein was called to testify in 1954 for her involvement in left-leaning groups. The Yiddish language school where she sent her kids was listed in a government roster of subversive organizations. Sylvia took the fifth and was ostracized. In his memoir, her son wrote of the FBI camping outside of his bar mitzvah in Silver Spring, Md. and taking down liscense plates.
Courtesy of the Gordon Archives at Washington Hebrew Congregation, Rabbi Norman Gestenfield’s 1950 Rosh Hashanah sermon underlines this: “A man is innocent until he is proven guilty: and there is a difference between heresey and conspiracy.” The local rabbi continued, “A man’s right to differ must be preserved in a free society.”
A map of the United States near the end of the exhibit details that the vast majority of states held hearings targeting private citizens like school teachers, civil rights organizers, professors and union organizers. Many groups advocating for peace, workers rights and racial justice blinked out of existence. The Red Scare, and HUAC’s strangelhold, ultimately dwindled in the late 1950s.
But at CJM, the past is paramount to the present. A large poster of the constitution is filled with post-its from visitors, encouraged by the museum to write ideas of how best to protect the First Amendment. “Right wins over might!” one highlighted on the website proclaims.
For coverage of past and ongioing exhibits at CJM, check out my museum tab under Books, Plays, Movies and Music.
And it turns the lesbian aspect tawdry, imho, despite a great cast. But the novel won the Orange Award for New Writers in 2006! Two years later, it was a finalist for fiction in the National Jewish Book Awards, too.
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