Steve Hunegs and Rabbi Norman M. Cohen: Historically, Indians and Jews were allies

In his Oct. 16 commentary on the 70th anniversary of the film version of "The Wizard of Oz" ("Does this image bring back warm memories?"), Tim Giago, the founder and first president of the Native American Journalists Association, rightfully calls our attention to the reprehensible views of L. Frank Baum, who penned the children's book from which the cinematic classic was adapted. No matter how much we may enjoy "The Wizard of Oz," and irrespective of the film's cultural significance, Baum's despicable views about Native Americans and his call for their "total annihilation" cannot be swept under the rug of history.

As Jews, who suffered through the tragedy of the Shoah with its murder of 6 million of our people, we are deeply sensitive to the pain and loss suffered by Native Americans, and other victims of genocide. We are painfully aware of the dark alleys of human cruelty to which the hateful rhetoric espoused by Baum can lead. Accordingly, as Jews, but also as Minnesotans who bear our own historical responsibility for the atrocities committed against Native Americans within our own state, we condemn in the strongest possible terms the genocidal ranting of Baum, as well as the many injustices visited upon Native Americans historically and today.

Unfortunately, however, in an effort to drive home his point, Giago reaches into the trash can of history by relying upon one of the most pernicious and discredited anti-Semitic canards. Specifically, Giago in ostensibly seeking to explain the enduring popularity of "The Wizard of Oz" claims that "... many powerful Jews in America ... actively promote the film." Giago also rhetorically asks "[c]ould it be that the lives of the Jews were more important than the lives of the Indians?"

In so doing, Giago not only inexplicably aligns American Jews with the ugly anti-Native American views of Baum, but dishonors the memory of American Jews such as Felix S. Cohen, who was a leading champion of Native American rights and sovereignty. As a distinguished scholar and author of the Handbook of Federal Indian Law (1942), Cohen's writings were critical to restoring federal recognition of tribal sovereignty. As noted by Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak of Los Angeles, Cohen's passion for Native American rights and justice was specifically informed by his understanding of Jewish history. Writing in 1949, only a few short years after the end of the Shoah, Cohen explained that:

"Our interest in Native American self-government today is not the interest of sentimentalists or antiquarians. We have a vital concern with Indian self-government because the Native American is to America what the Jew was to the Russian Czars and Hitler's Germany. For us, the Indian tribe is the miner's canary, and when it flutters and droops we know that the poison gasses of intolerance threaten all other minorities in our land."

It is regrettable that Giago, like so many others recently, is so quick to compare the target of his ire to Adolf Hitler. While Giago is right to document and decry Baum's hateful polemics, there is simply no comparison to Hitler, who not only authored "Mein Kampf" but actually implemented the murder of 12 million innocent men, women and children.

Rather than comparing Baum to Hitler, a more apt historical comparison would be to icons and known antisemites such as Wilhelm Richard Wagner, Charles Lindbergh, T.S. Eliot, and Roald Dahl, who simultaneously contributed so much to our culture and yet were vile Jew baiters. As Jews, we have great experience with reconciling our appreciation for such icons' achievements with our deep feelings of hurt by their antisemitism.

While we appreciate this important startling revelation by Giago about the writer of the Wizard of Oz's call for genocide, we cannot ignore Giago's accompanying reinforcement of stereotyping Jews with canards that contribute to animosity and hatred toward the Jewish community.

Giago's enlightening so many of us about Baum's hatred should not be ironically accompanied by a shadow that casts its pall over the merits of his well-intentioned invitation to gather sympathy for an important cause.

Steve Hunegs is the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. Rabbi Norman M. Cohen is the spiritual leader of Bet Shalom Congregation in Minnetonka.