The tsunami of surprising antisemitism internationally, from Hamas’ slaughter of 1,200 Jews and hostage-taking on Oct. 7 to antisemitic demonstrations, has triggered deeply held recollections of rising up Jewish, and experiencing antisemitism, in Seattle.
We Jews had been a definite Seattle minority and no public establishment (faculties, authorities workplaces, and so on.) closed on Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur, our Excessive Holy Days. Till pretty not too long ago, Jews had been not often if ever admitted to Seattle’s distinguished social establishments, such because the Seattle Yacht Membership, the Seattle Tennis Membership, the Faculty Membership, the Washington Athletic Membership, the Rainier Membership, or the Seattle and Broadmoor golf golf equipment, or allowed to reside in Seattle’s gated communities of Broadmoor or The Highlands.
My most blatant antisemitic expertise was within the late Forties when our household was excluded from what was then the Alderbrook Inn, a resort lodge on Hood Canal. Dad had made reservations properly prematurely and my sister and I had been notably excited as this was the primary time our household had plans to remain at a “resort.”
After we arrived, I walked with Dad to the entrance desk to verify in. The receptionist reviewed the reservation after which requested Dad, “Are you Jewish?” Dad responded “sure” and inquired why he requested. The receptionist replied that he was sorry for any inconvenience, however Alderbrook Inn didn’t settle for Jews. We promptly departed, my sister and I crying over our disappointment.
This was not unusual within the American resort business, notably within the Southwest and on the East Coast, in keeping with the Anti-Defamation League. Resorts would promote as being for “chosen” or “restricted” clientele, with some going so far as placing up indicators studying “Gentiles solely.” (By the mid-Nineteen Fifties, Washington had a regulation in place that banned discrimination in motels, in keeping with the ADL.)
After I attended the College of Washington (1952-54), there have been separate fraternities and sororities for Jewish college students. Jews had created nationwide organizations with native chapters at schools and universities all through america, and that included three Jewish fraternities and two Jewish sororities on the UW. The separation of Jews and non-Jews was facilitated by the UW, which created separate “rushes” (a interval when fraternities and sororities recruit members) for non-Jews. I participated within the Jewish rush and joined a Jewish fraternity, Zeta Beta Tau.
After I earned my undergraduate and MBA levels, I enrolled in regulation college. In search of a summer season clerkship following my first yr, I used to be suggested by educated mates to not waste my time making use of to the big and established Seattle regulation corporations, as just about none employed Jews. I used to be employed by a small Seattle agency collectively led by a Jewish and a Black associate.
After I graduated from Yale Legislation Faculty in 1962, the alternatives for Jewish attorneys in Seattle had been very restricted. Company regulation was dominated by two massive regulation corporations — one in all them had but to rent its first Jewish legal professional at the moment, and the second had however two Jewish attorneys. It was generally believed by Jewish regulation college graduates nationwide that alternatives within the regulation had been restricted to “Jewish” corporations, which had been few and restricted of their scope, and authorities jobs.
Throughout my final yr at Yale, prestigious New York “white shoe” regulation corporations swarmed the regulation college, recruiting graduating college students. Though roughly one-third of the college’s college students had been Jewish, just about none had been employed by these corporations.
These unique practices formally ended within the late Nineteen Fifties and ‘60s due to federal courtroom selections and laws prohibiting discrimination primarily based on faith.
That stated, there is a gigantic hole between the legally enforceable proper to use and the sensation of being sincerely welcomed by an employer or social group or residential neighborhood. My considerably knowledgeable guess is {that a} smaller variety of Jews — in comparison with non-Jews with comparable instructional and employment backgrounds — now work at or belong to organizations that previously excluded them. Why? Instinct tells me Jews lack curiosity in becoming a member of or working for a previously exclusionary group.
For instance, in the course of the summer season between my second and third years of regulation college, I labored for Aetna Insurance coverage Group, which at the moment had no Jewish attorneys (or officers inside its huge company hierarchy). I used to be provided a job upon graduating however selected to not settle for it, given the apparent lack of alternative for Jewish staff all through the corporate. I don’t assume I’d have labored for a regulation agency “pressured” to rent me.
My greatest good friend in regulation college, Alan Levine, associated the expertise of being addressed “Mr. Goldberg” on the finish of a job interview. In response to being corrected, the interviewer shrugged and stated, “Goldberg, Levine …”
An irony: Throughout my time working for the Authorized Protection Fund, then the premiere group difficult Jim Crow practices, my efforts had been solely targeted on anti-Black discrimination.
Nonetheless, exclusion from employment, motels and social teams was simply the tip of the iceberg in terms of antisemitism.
