LETTER: Typed letter signed,, to Mrs. Ernst, March 20, 1943.
Roosevelt, [Anna] Eleanor. Typed letter signed, "Eleanor Roosevelt," to Mrs. Ernst, March 20, 1943, New York; single sheet, 6-1/16 x 9-3/16"; on official White House stationery with "The White House / Washington" engraved in gilded lettering at the upper margin; original mailing envelope accompanies; letter has been folded twice to fit its envelope; slightly rusty imprint of a paper clip at upper margin. Generally very good.
Mrs. Roosevelt's correspondent has questioned her use of "Jewish" to denote race. She replies,
You are quite right in saying there is not racial distinction, but a religious one.
Nevertheless in common parlance the word Jewish is frequently used in a racial sense and since I was using it to convey to the everyday person who does not make very careful distinctions, a thought which I considered important, I had to use the accepted mode of expression.
We can not do away with something which is ingrained in people's minds by ignoring it.
Likely Mrs. Ernst's objection arose from a published article or from one of Mrs. Roosevelt's "My Day" columns.
As it became increasingly clear that Europe's Jewish population was threatened by Hitler's regime, Mrs. Roosevelt undertook to apply pressure behind the scenes and to arouse the sympathies of the American public on behalf of threatened Jews. Like many of her class and background, Mrs. Roosevelt grew up in an atmosphere tinged with anti-Semitism. As she became more exposed to a wide range of people through politics, she shook herself free of a number of prejudices. During the war years, she, as much as anyone connected with the Roosevelt administration, sought to encourage the United States to intervene on behalf of Jewish refugees and to allow them to immigrate here.
Mrs. Roosevelt's reply, characteristically, is both diplomatic and pragmatic on this sensitive and important issue.
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