“That Old Canard”: Emasculating the Jewish Man in Anti-Semitic Rhetoric

Jews in the United States have been subject to antisemitic rhetoric for centuries, first imported with immigrants from Europe and then evolved into a unique American prejudice. Modern antisemitism, developed hand-in-hand with European nationalism, attacks several aspects of Jewish life and culture, but always highlights the manhood of Jews as inherently inferior. Left out of nationalist movements which glorified chivalry and manliness, Jews who immigrated to America remained outside of the hegemon while the American nation glorified the strenuous life and the tough nature of frontier manhood. Those Jews who strove to attain American manhood engaged in masculine American endeavors to the extent of their access and ingenuity. Their struggle to enter institutions of American masculinity reveals a great deal about Jewish assimilation in the United States, as it demonstrates a form of antisemitism reserved nearly entirely for Jewish men.

Excellent studies have emerged concerning the Jewish experience in the military, university life, agriculture, finance, civil rights and women’s rights movements, counterculture and protest, crime, sports, and many other areas of interest. What I attempt to reveal in this paper is that one of the connecting threads between these elements of Jewish life in America is the defense of Jewish masculinity against antisemitic attacks, and the attempt to access American manhood despite such prejudice. Recognizing the gendered nature of this particular bigotry and refocusing our study of Jewish history through the lens of a uniquely Jewish masculine struggle provides insight and deeper understanding of the American Jewish experience.