​Anti-Semitism & Xenophobia during 19th Century Epidemics​​

• Activity 1 (Texts)​
• Activity 2 (Letters)

Activity 1: Scapegoating in Disease-Fearing New York Texts

learning objectives

Students will be able to:

• Understand and apply the concept of scapegoating
• Understand and analyze textual primary sources
• Identify and deconstruct anti-Semetic discriminatory rhetoric in the 1890s
• Compare and evaluate the writers’ perspectives and biases

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Jump to Vocabulary List (bottom)

In-Class Activity:
​Step 1 (5 mins)
Hand out a worksheet with the newspaper excerpts and questions on them. Scapegoating is defined as the unfair blaming of a person or a specific group of people for something that they are not responsible for. This term will be used to frame the activity as students look at how the blame was placed on Eastern European Jewish immigrants for the spread of cholera in New York City, even before cholera entered the New York Port from Hamburg in August 1892.

Step 2 (12 mins)
Instruct students to read the quotes and discuss the following questions in pairs.

1. Quote 1: this article was written in the context of banning Russian Jewish immigration to the United States.
   “It is plain that the United States would be better off if ignorant Russian Jews and Hungarians were denied a refuge here…. These people are offensive enough at best; under the present circumstances they are a positive menace to the health of the country. Even should they pass the quarantine officials, their mode of life when they settle down makes them always a source of danger. Cholera, it must be remembered, originates in the homes of this human riffraff.” (New York Times, August 29, 1892, 5:5)
2. Quote 2: this was written in response to calls to ban Jewish immigrants
   “Why does not our government make proper quarantine regulations… Small pox, cholera, yellow fever, and other contagious and infectious diseases are brought into this country constantly, but there is no cry that all foreigners must be excluded. But the Jew is a prominent target, he always has been, and always will be, I am afraid” Isaac Meyer Wise, editor of Cincinnati based German Jewish weekly, The American Israelite (American Israelite March 3, 1892, 4:6; republished in September 21,1892 4:5)
3. Discussion Questions
   •  What is Author 1 saying? How does he support his position?  What do you think Author 1 is arguing for?
   • How does prejudice play into Author 1’s arguments? What perspectives and biases does Author 1 show through the way he represents Jewish immigrants? What words does Author 1 use to reveal his anti-Semitic biases?
   •  What is Author 2 (Wise) responding to? How does Wise argue that Jewish people are treated unfairly?
   •  What does Wise suggest for responding to the spread of epidemics?
   • If you could speak to Author 1 now, 129 years later, what would you say in response to his statements? What would you want to tell him?
   • What would you tell Wise? What have you learned from history, including history after Wise’s time, to help with his arguments?
     
     

Step 3 (10 mins)
Discuss the following questions as a class.

1. How did scapegoating fit into the response to the cholera epidemic in 1892?
2. What are the consequences of blaming one group of people for the spread of disease?
3. Are there similarities to what people have said during the COVID-19 pandemic?​​​​

 

Vocabulary List:
Regulations: rule made by authority
Contagious: spread from person to person by contact
Infectious: likely to be spread from person to person 
Prominent: important, noticeable
Ignorant: uneducated, unsophisticated
Refuge: safety, shelter
Offensive: causing hurt, repulsive
Menace: person or thing likely to cause harm
Originate: to come from 
Riffraff: people regarded as worthless

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