American Jewish Committee

Father Coughlin American Jewish Committee

This book is being reprinted in the interest of presenting both sides of the story on Father Coughlin. On November 20, 1938, Reverend Charles E. Coughlin began a series of broadcasts. In his first talk he stated that he would deal with the question of Nazi persecution "in a scientific spirit of coldly facing causes" and said that he was speaking "simply as a student of history." He then referred to and quoted from so-called authorities, giving the impression that they were authentic and the statements authoritative and official. The purpose of this memorandum is to present the true facts from authoritative sources. Father Coughlin's main thesis is that Communism is of Jewish origin; that it was introduced into Russia by Jews; that Nazism came into being to prevent the Jews from introducing it into Germany; and that there is an international Jewish conspiracy to spread Communism throughout the world. To support his argument he professes to quote from various documents, papers and articles. For instance, in his radio speech of November 20, 1938, Father Coughlin said: "Moreover, I have before me a quotation from the periodical named, 'American Hebrew' of September 10, 1920 which says: 'The achievement, the Russian-Jewish Revolution, destined to figure in history as the overshadowing result of the World War, was largely the outcome of Jewish thinking, of Jewish discontent, of Jewish effort to reconstruct'." One of Father Coughlin's main points is that communism in Russia was financed by Jewish bankers and particularly by American Jewish bankers. To prove this point, in his radio address of November 20, 1938, he said that he had in his possession a copy of an official British Government document naming certain Jewish bankers, His words were: "In our possession, we have a copy of the official White Paper issued by the English War cabinet in 1919, This official paper prints the names of the Jewish bankers, Kuhn, Loeb and Company of New York, among those who helped to finance the Russian Revolution and Communism. Since then, both Jewish and Gentile financiers have been according financial comfort to the Soviet Republic, Perhaps this financial over time was made in innocence-perhaps not."