What Does It Mean? A Comment on the Alleged Anti-Semitism of John R. Commons

Abstract

In a recent article Luca Fiorito and Cosma Orsi accused John R. Commons of anti-Semitism “within a broad and xenophobic framework.” They rested their indictment on three sources: an interview in which Mark Perlman spoke of his father, Selig; Commons’s report on immigration for the United States Industrial Commission; and Commons’s book Races and Immigrants. This comment, looking at the same sources, finds confusion about the meanings of anti-Semitism and xenophobia as they are applied to Commons.

Non-Proletarianization Theories of the Jewish Worker (1902 to 1939)

“…An important primary source in this regard is the report “Immigration and Its Economic Effects” that John R. Commons wrote for the US Industrial Commission in 1901 (Commons 1901). The antisemitic character of Commons’s comments on Jewish garment workers in this report was recently debated in this journal (Fiorito and Orsi 2016; Chasse 2018). In the remainder of the current section, I do not exhaustively discuss Commons’s alleged antisemitism 25 .…”

“…In his response to Fiorito and Orsi, Chasse points out that Commons, in preparing his report, spent six months with Abram Bisno, a Jewish garment worker and union leader. Chasse repeatedly asks in his article, “How can Commons be accused of antisemitism by using the words of a Jewish union leader?” (Chasse 2018 pp. 424, 426–427).…”

“…On the one hand, Chasse strives to demonstrate that many of Commons’s arguments against Jewish and non-Jewish immigration were “reasonable” and grounded in concrete observations. For instance, he cites the idea that immigration was pro-cyclical or that it complicated labor organization among workers of many nationalities (Chasse 2018, p. 423). Chasse also considers some of the terms Commons used to have had no negative sense.…”

“…Chasse also considers some of the terms Commons used to have had no negative sense. For example, he discusses the word “individualism,” which was not “synonymous with ‘selfishness’ or ‘uncooperativeness’” and had no “pejorative sense” (Chase 2018, p. 426).…”

“…This association figures particularly prominently in the report that John R. Commons wrote for the Industrial Commission in 1901 (Commons 1901). The antisemitic nature of Commons’s comments on Jewish garment-industry workers was recently debated in this journal (Fiorito and Orsi 2016; Chasse 2018). The current article offers a comparative perspective on this debate, including Jewish and non-Jewish voices.…”