Benjamin H. Freedman

Benjamin Harrison[1] Freedman (October 4, 1890 – May 1984)[2] was an American businessman, Holocaust denier,[3][4][5][6] and vocal anti-Zionist.[7][8] Born in a Jewish family, he converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism.[9] Outside of political activism, Freedman was a partner in a dermatological institute and investor for small businesses.

Benjamin H. Freedman
Born
Benjamin Harrison Freedman

(1890-10-04)October 4, 1890
New York City, New York, U.S
DiedMay 1984 (aged 93)
Garden City, New York, U.S
OccupationBusinessman, principal owner of the Woodbury Soap Company
Known forAnti-Zionism
Spouse(s)Rose Schoendorf

Biography

Freedman was, from 1925 to 1937, a partner with Samuel D. Leidesdorf in the John H. Woodbury Laboratories, a dermatological institute[10] and a derivative company of the old Woodbury Soap Company.[11] 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'".[12] In 1946 he sued the American Jewish Committee for libel and the case was thrown out in less than a month.[13][14]

In 1988, the Institute for Historical Review, an organization known for propagating 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."[15]

Activities

He was a financial backer of the author Conde McGinley, publisher of the antisemitic periodical Common Sense.[16][17][18][19][20] 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'".[21] 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".[22] Long John Nebel reported on WNBC that Freedman would discuss anti-Semitism.[23] 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.[24][25]

Benjamin H. Freedman at the age of 82, center (third from left) with bow tie, receiving the Service award from the Anti-Communist Federation of Polish Freedom Fighters in Salem, Massachusetts, 1972. Freedman's wife, Rose Schoendorf, depicted at the far left

Freedman opposed the nomination of Anna M. Rosenberg to be United States Assistant Secretary of Defense in 1950.[26] 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".[6]

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)[6]

He is mentioned in a report by the House Un-American Activities Committee.[27]

Works
  • League for Peace With Justice in Palestine. Freedman published his own broadsheets under the aegis of the League for Peace With Justice in Palestine, which he founded in 1946.[28]
  • "Palestine," Destiny: The Magazine of National Life (Jan. 1948): 26–28 (originally appeared in the National Economic Council's Letter, no. 177, Oct. 15, 1947). Haverhill, Mass.
  • Facts are Facts, Noontide Press (Softcover), ISBN 0-317-53273-1. A pamphlet purporting to be the text of a 1954 letter from Freedman to David Goldstein, proponent of the idea that Christianity fulfilled Judaism. The text expounds the notion that most people now identified as Jews are descendants of Khazars, a Turkic people of Central Asia who converted to Judaism. Freedman does not refer to Jews, but to "so-called or 'self-styled Jews'".
  • Why Congress is Crooked or Crazy or Both, Founder, 1946, League for Peace with Justice in Palestine (New York, 1975)

Notes
  1. House Committee on un-American activities, pg 17, calling him "Benjamin Harrison Freedman ... of 960 Park Avenue"
  2. Social Security Death Index: "born Oct 4 1890, died May 1984 Benjamin Freeman [sic] Garden City, NY"
  3. Identity Politics in the Age of Genocide: The Holocaust and Historical representation, David B. MacDonald, page 56
  4. Benjamin H.Freedman, "Six Million Jew Hoax," Common Sense (May 1, 1959)
  5. "In the meantime, however, a vicious campaign against Mrs. Rosenberg's nomination had been launched by a group of professional anti-Semites. The leaders of the group were Benjamin H. Freedman, a retired New York businessman... and Gerald L. K. Smith, the notorious leader of the 'Christian Nationalist Crusade.'" Robert K. Griffith, The Politics of Fear, p. 136.
  6. Stuart Svonkin, Jews Against Prejudice, p. 120.
  7. The New York Times, May 8, 1948: Anti-Zionist Tells of Dinner in Capital
  8. 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
  9. The New York Times, May 5, 1948, p. 35 :"Mr Freedman who was born in the Jewish faith, but now practices Catholicism ..."
  10. Bridges, Robert; Dashiell, Alfred; Logan, Harlan (1891). Scribner's Magazine. Charles Scribners Sons.
  11. Nomination of Anna M. Rosenberg to be Assistant Secretary of Defense, Freedman's testimony starts on page 145
  12. Cairo to Damascus by John Roy Carlson. Knopf 1951 (PDF 4.5M)
  13. The New York Times, July 8, 1946
  14. The New York Times, May 27, 1948, pg 23
  15. Introduction Behind the Balfour Declaration: The hidden origins of today's Mideast crisis, ISBN 0-939484-29-3 OCLC: 20481166
  16. Preliminary Report on Neo-fascist and Hate Groups pg 18
  17. Stephen E. Atkins (2009). Holocaust Denial as an International Movement. ABC-CLIO. pp. 154–. ISBN 978-0-313-34538-8.
  18. Chip Berlet; Matthew Nemiroff Lyons (2000). Right-wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort. Guilford Press. pp. 172–. ISBN 978-1-57230-562-5.
  19. Philip Jenkins (January 1997). Hoods and Shirts: The Extreme Right in Pennsylvania, 1925-1950. Univ of North Carolina Press. pp. 225–. ISBN 978-0-8078-2316-3.
  20. Clive Webb (March 15, 2011). Fight Against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights. University of Georgia Press. pp. 52–. ISBN 978-0-8203-4009-8.
  21. The New York Times, April 1, 1955, pg 9
  22. The New York Times, February 14, 1964
  23. The New York Times, September 2, 1965
  24. Social Security Death Index: "born Oct 4 1890, died May 1984 Benjamin Freeman [sic] Garden City, NY"
  25. New York Passenger Lists, online at www.ancestry.com : Arriving on the Queen of Bermuda, 24 Feb 1936, from Hamilton, Bermuda, Sheet 126 "Benjamin Freedman 46 born 1890 New York City, residence 2138 Edwin Ave, West Hill, NY". Next entry is "Rose Margaret Freedman 30 born 1905 New York City, residence 2138 Edwin Ave, West Hill, NY
  26. Services, United States Congress Senate Committee on Armed (1950). 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. U.S. Government Printing Office.
  27. House Un-American Activities Committee, pg 17
  28. Yearbook of the United Nations 1946/7

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