Reminds me of a quote I can’t attribute. (Pearl Mesta?) “Washington is full of powerful men and the women they married when they were young.”
I don’t think it’s Pearl Mesta, 'luci, but it’s quoted in Nora Ephron’s collection CRAZY SALAD, which I have sitting around here somewhere.
My Dad served in WWII and told me that he met guys in the service who wanted to feel his scalp because they knew all Jews had horns. He was dead serious.
They don’t?
How do the males spar for breeding rights, then?
You’re fucking kidding me.
No one’s looking at “the past.” They’re looking at an asinine and obnoxious woman who wouldn’t let a colleague of her husband into her house.
Don’t ever use the phrase PC, by the way. Everyone knows it’s only used as a premptive shield before someone says something indefensible.
Sorry, I was making a joke. The first joke I thought of would have been a little more obvious: “Well of course he wouldn’t be invited in: if a Jew comes into your house, as often as not he winds up murdering Jesus in your dining room.” There’s also a joke about resale value somewhere out there.
I don’t know why I went for the one liner. Laziness, probably.
There was surprisingly little difference, especially for older people like the Trumans and Wallaces. The war that still mattered to a lot of those people was the Civil War. Harry went against his solidly still-Confederate family to do the things he did as president and I’m not surprised he gave into his wife’s beliefs at home, especially as it was her house. I would. Bess was a battleaxe.
Oops. Sorry for overreacting. I should have realized. One whoosh for me. 
Truman, like many of our other great Presidents (there was this one, wrote a really important document, saying something about all men being equal, had slaves and quite possibly a slave misstress, pity I can’t remember his name right now), held somewhat contrary views. Truman desegregated the military but had no problem telling racist jokes.
He was also incredibly devoted to Bess, and given Truman’s considerable intellect (the man was one helluva pianist, he was able to perform pieces which few others were), I cannot imagine his devotion to her being based upon her having big titties or something.
That he had a failing in deferring to Bess on this matter, is not remarkable. How many of us could withstand the same kind of scrutiny given to Truman and other Presidents and emerge spotless? I certainly couldn’t, and I doubt that anyone here could, either. That Truman was able to rise above so many of the things which defined people of his generation and Missouri at the time (read Truman by David McCullough for an idea of just how corrupt and racist the politics of Missouri were when Truman got his start) is remarkable, and what makes him great. That he wasn’t able to climb to the heights we’ve obtained in the years since he held office is not his failing, for we would not be here, if it were not for him.
So what did Bess think of Harry’s old partner in the clothing business, who was Jewish (I can’t recall his name offhand). I don’t recall reading anything about this; but I imagine that if Bess treated him the same way, most friendly biographers (if even aware of it) would overlook it.
It was Eddie Jacobson.
In “Truman,” McCullough does discuss it. The Jacobsons were never invited over to dinner at the Truman house (the Wallace house).
The house belonged to Bess’s family, all of whom took it as an article of faith that he wasn’t good enough for her. It was a HUGE family concession that he was allowed to live there with her. Very odd family dynamics, but they were a devoted couple.
Bow chicka WOW!
And maybe that family dynamic partly explains the “no-Jews-in-the-house” policy?
Maybe, for all we know from the information given here, Bess Truman was personally less prejudiced against Jews than her other family members were, and was capable of being polite to them when she met them on neutral territory. But she knew that her family would have a thermonuclear fit if they ever learned that she had let One of Them into the pristine Judenrein family home. So, the guest had to wait on the porch.
Just a speculation. Mind you, I don’t say that that would be an excuse for such rude and prejudiced behavior. And certainly the nobler course of action would have been to treat the visitor decently and brave the consequences of the family thermonuclear fit.
But you know, a lot of people didn’t think like that back then. Many people, including many members of oppressed minority groups themselves, just took it for granted that a small amount of oppression was inevitable. It really wasn’t necessary to be a nasty hate-filled bitch to be willing back then to do things that nowadays we consider just inexcusably nasty.
I’m reminded of the story my mom once told me about inviting a classmate over after school one day (this would have been in, hmmm, nearly 1940 I guess), and having my grandma take her aside after the othef girl had left and tell her that she knew it wasn’t deliberate and my mom just didn’t realize, but she could not have any of “those children” come over to the house to play. See, the classmate was black.
And my grandma was (to my perception) a really sweet lady and I’m sure she would never have dreamed of being personally rude or vicious toward a black person. But in her culture, you just did not associate with them. You didn’t have them in your house. (Not socially, anyway. The maid could come in, if she used the back door, of course.)
It’s weird and it’s sick and it’s evil, but in those days, in many parts of society, it was simply normal. That, of course, is the worst thing about oppressive and discriminatory social systems: that a lot of otherwise nice and decent people come to just take them for granted and acquiesce in what they do.
All I know is if Harry were here, he’d probably threaten to punch you in the nose.
Actually, having read the article from which the OP took the quote of that vignette, I’m a bit surprised that it’s Bess that s/he decides to Pit. Harry doesn’t seem to have been any poster child for religious tolerance either:
IIRC her family was relatively well-to-do but her father committed suicide, shot himself over reverses in business. It’s always personally shocking but back then, and in a smaller town, it was also rather scandalous. At any rate, it meant coming down in the world and probably factored significantly into Bess agreeing to marry Harry at all. He very much moved into their house, Bess and her mother, but never really equaled the dead man’s stature in their eyes, not even being elected President.
From what I’ve read, Bess was rigidly provincial. She hated Washington and especially all the public notice. She was happiest playing bridge and socializing with a very narrow circle of personal friends and that was about it. She effectively walked away from the “job” of First Lady. I’d say Harry was probably the most uxorious President.
Holy crap.
When my sister was traveling in rural Australia in the mid-80’s she ran into some folks who asked the same question; and yes, they were dead serious. The world is not always as we see it here.
Silly soldiers.
Only male Jews have horns.