The Jewish Messenger in America’s Chinese Exclusion Debates, 1869–1902

Abstract

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, both the Jews and the Chinese faced virulent racist prejudices in the United States. To prove their Americanness and win recognition, many Jews chose to side with mainstream Americans and support Chinese exclusion. But The Jewish Messenger, a New York-based Jewish newspaper, trod a different path. It confronted Chinese exclusion head-on, portraying it as a menace to American honor. In its view, support for the Chinese would equal defending the country that both Jewish and non-Jewish exclusionists claimed was under fatal threat from Chinese immigrants. In this way, the periodical illuminated a path that Jews could walk to prove their Americanness without sacrificing their sense of righteousness.