Benjamin H. Freedman Explained

Benjamin H. Freedman
Birth Name:Benjamin Harrison Freedman
Birth Date:4 October 1890
Birth Place:New York City, New York, U.S
Death Date:May 1984 (aged 93)
Death Place:Garden City, New York, U.S
Occupation:Businessman, principal owner of the Woodbury Soap Company
Known For:Anti-Zionism
Spouse:Rose Schoendorf

Benjamin Harrison[1] Freedman (October 4, 1890 – May 1984)[2] was an American businessman, Holocaust denier,[3] [4] [5] and vocal anti-Zionist.[6] [7] Born in a Jewish family, he converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism.[8] Outside of political activism, Freedman was a partner in a dermatological institute and investor for small businesses.

Biography

From 1925 to 1937, Freedman was a partner with Samuel D. Leidesdorf in the John H. Woodbury Laboratories, a dermatological institute[9] and a derivative company of the old Woodbury Soap Company.[10] Benjamin H Freedman was listed on the letterhead of the Institute for Arab American Affairs and around 1946, along with his wife, listed as "R M Schoendorf" (Rose M. Schoendorf Freedman), "sponsored a series of advertisements under the imprint of 'The League for Peace with Justice in Palestine'".[11] In 1946, he sued the American Jewish Committee for libel and the case was thrown out in less than a month.[12] [13]

In 1988, the Institute for Historical Review, an organization which propagated Holocaust denial, published Robert John's Behind the Balfour Declaration, including a single acknowledgment to Freedman. John wrote that Freedman "gave me copies of materials on the Balfour Declaration, which I might never have found on my own and (he) encouraged my own research."[14]

Activities

He was a financial backer of the author Conde McGinley, publisher of the antisemitic periodical Common Sense.[15] [16] [17] [18] [19] In the 1955 libel trial by Rabbi Joachim Prinz against McGinley, Freedman testified that "he [Freedman] had given Mr. McGinley financial support of 'more than $10,000 but less than $100,000'".[20] Prinz had sued McGinley for calling him a "red rabbi."

At the Henry George School, Benjamin Freedman spoke on "The Genesis of Middle East Tensions".[21] Long John Nebel reported on WNBC that Freedman would discuss anti-Semitism.[22] Freedman was politically active until the mid-1970s when he was well over 85 years old. He died in May 1984 at the age of 94.[23] [24]

Freedman opposed the nomination of Anna M. Rosenberg to be United States Assistant Secretary of Defense in 1950.[25] An article in the ADL Bulletin titled The Plot Against Ann Rosenberg attributed the attacks on Rosenberg's loyalty to "professional anti-Semites and lunatic nationalists", including the "Jew-baiting cabal of John Rankin, Benjamin Freedman, and Gerald Smith".

Freedman, an apostate Jew, was well known to the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee as an active supporter of the Arab cause in the Middle East. (fn 33) In the course of his erratic and often contradictory testimony before the Senate committee, Freedman revealed the roles played by anti-Semitic agitators and right-wing anticommunists — including Gerald L. K. Smith, Conde McGinley, the "Reverend" Wesley Swift, Congressman John Rankin, Senator Joseph McCarthy, and J. B. Matthews — in the campaign against the Rosenberg appointment. (fn 34)

He is mentioned in a report by the House Un-American Activities Committee.[26]

Works

Resources

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://debs.indstate.edu/u588n4_1954.pdf House Committee on un-American activities, pg 17
  2. Social Security Death Index: "born Oct 4 1890, died May 1984 Benjamin Freeman [sic] Garden City, NY"
  3. https://books.google.com/books?id=8QoNONBC5K8C&dq=%22Benjamin+Freedman%22+Holocaust&pg=PA56 Identity Politics in the Age of Genocide: The Holocaust and Historical representation
  4. Benjamin H.Freedman, "Six Million Jew Hoax," Common Sense (May 1, 1959)
  5. Book: Svonkin, Stuart . Jews Against Prejudice: American Jews and the Fight for Civil Liberties . 120 . . 1997 . 0231106386.
  6. The New York Times, May 8, 1948: Anti-Zionist Tells of Dinner in Capital
  7. The New York Times, May 9, 1948: Anti-Zionist Lists Policy 'Dictators'; Lehman, Baruch and Warburg Named as Among Those Who Influence U.S. on Palestine
  8. The New York Times, May 5, 1948, p. 35 :"Mr Freedman who was born in the Jewish faith, but now practices Catholicism ..."
  9. Book: Scribner's Magazine. Bridges. Robert. Dashiell. Alfred. Logan. Harlan. 1891. Charles Scribner%27s Sons. en.
  10. https://books.google.com/books?id=jDF_udClXigC&q=%22John+H+Woodbury%22 Nomination of Anna M. Rosenberg to be Assistant Secretary of Defense
  11. http://www.spitfirelist.com/Books/carlson01.pdf Cairo to Damascus
  12. The New York Times, July 8, 1946
  13. The New York Times, May 27, 1948, pg 23
  14. http://worldcat.org/oclc/20481166?tab=holdings Introduction Behind the Balfour Declaration: The hidden origins of today's Mideast crisis
  15. Preliminary Report on Neo-fascist and Hate Groups pg 18
  16. Book: Stephen E. Atkins. Holocaust Denial as an International Movement. 2009. ABC-CLIO. 978-0-313-34538-8. 154–.
  17. Book: Chip Berlet. Matthew Nemiroff Lyons. Right-wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort. registration. 2000. Guilford Press. 978-1-57230-562-5. 172–.
  18. Book: Philip Jenkins. Hoods and Shirts: The Extreme Right in Pennsylvania, 1925-1950. January 1997. Univ of North Carolina Press. 978-0-8078-2316-3. 225–.
  19. Book: Clive Webb. Fight Against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights. 15 March 2011. University of Georgia Press. 978-0-8203-4009-8. 52–.
  20. The New York Times, April 1, 1955, p. 9
  21. The New York Times, February 14, 1964
  22. The New York Times, September 2, 1965
  23. Social Security Death Index: "born Oct 4 1890, died May 1984 Benjamin Freeman [sic] Garden City, NY"
  24. http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=7488&iid=NYT715_5768-0194&fn=Benjamin&ln=Freedman&st=r&ssrc=&pid=25609137 New York Passenger Lists
  25. Book: Services, United States Congress Senate Committee on Armed. Nomination of Anna M. Rosenberg to be Assistant Secretary of Defense: Hearing Before the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate, Eighty-first Congress, Second Session, on the Nomination of Anna M. Rosenberg, of New York, to be Assistant Secretary of Defense, a Position to which She was Appointed During the Last Recess of the Senate. November 29, 1950. 1950. U.S. Government Printing Office. en.
  26. Web site: [[House Un-American Activities Committee]], pg 17 . August 3, 2006 . November 8, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171108072349/http://debs.indstate.edu/u588n4_1954.pdf . dead .
  27. http://domino.un.org/UNISPAl.NSF/361eea1cc08301c485256cf600606959/6199d7529e2481a385256299006e8e4f!OpenDocument Yearbook of the United Nations 1946/7

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Benjamin H. Freedman".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.