Joseph Kennedy’s dark legacy of antisemitism lives on with RFK Jr his grandson

Yet again the media is awash with more stories of Robert Kennedy Jr’s far-fetched antisemitic rants that seem to appear with a dizzying regularity.

The public outrage is predictable and understandable- a disgrace to the family. How dare anyone sully that hallowed name

Aligning the name Kennedy and anti-semitism seems sacrosanct.

The fact is Robert Kennedy Jr’s hateful antisemitism didn’t fall far from the Kennedy family tree, though it did skip a generation one that bore much more tolerant fruit.

Once upon a time the name Kennedy was actually very much associated with antisemitism.

Joseph P Kennedy left a dark legacy for his family

Joseph P Kennedy, the patriarch of the family and Roberts Kennedy Jr grandfather, had a long and public history of hating Jews. He left a dark legacy for his family. By all accounts the senior Kennedy was a committed and vocal antisemite, a known nazi sympathizer and outspoken opponent of American Jews in Hollywood.

Antisemitic views expressed by Joseph Kennedy during his time as U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James in from 1938-1940 have been well documented and disturbing conversations with the German Ambassador were revealed in captured German documents, that were made public by the State Department.

Kennedy believed in a Jewish conspiracy to push the U.S. into an unnecessary war with Germany. A firm follower of appeasement when it came to Hitler, he explained to the German Ambassador to Great Britain that President Roosevelt was the victim of “Jewish influence” and poorly informed as to the philosophy, ambitions, and ideals of Hiter’s regime.

The Nazi ambassador told his bosses that Kennedy was Germany’s best friend.

As fiercely anti-Communist as he was anti-semitic, Kennedy looked upon Adolph Hitler as a solution to both these “world problems.”

Joseph Kennedy had long detested Jews even before coming to London.

He regularly referred to the “Jew Media” in the U.S.  and he took umbrage to Jewish columnists who he felt criticized him for no good reason.

Like his friend Charles Coughlin (an anti-Semitic broadcaster and Roman Catholic priest), Kennedy always remained convinced of what he believed to be the Jews’ corrupt, malignant, and profound influence on American culture and politics. “The Democratic [party] policy of the United States is a Jewish production,” Kennedy told a British reporter near the end of 1939, adding confidently that Roosevelt would “fall” in 1940.

Joseph Kennedy and his family (L-R) Eunice, Jack, Rosemary, Jean, Joe Sr., Teddy, Rose, Joe Jr., Patricia, Bobby, Kathleen

The influence and power wielded in his public disdain for Jews would affect his family.

His namesake Joe Jr. admired Adolf Hitler,  impressed by Nazi rhetoric after traveling in Germany as a student in 1934.

As explained in the book The Kennedys at War 1937-1945:

“Joe Jr. applauded Hitler’s insight in realizing the German people’s “need of a common enemy, someone of whom to make the goat. Someone, by whose riddance the Germans would feel they had cast out the cause of their predicament.

…The dislike of the Jews, however, was well-founded. They were at the heads of all big businesses, in law etc. It is all to their credit for them to get so far, but their methods had been quite unscrupulous … the lawyers and prominent judges were Jews, and if you had a case against a Jew, you were nearly always sure to lose it. … As far as the brutality is concerned, it must have been necessary to use some ….”

Despite being the golden boy, when it came to the Jews,  Joe Jr. was more the rotten apple that fell from the anti-Semitic tree.

Robert Kennedy speaking at a pro-Israel rally at Madison Square Garden 1967 Photo Santi Visalli

But his son Bobby, the father of Robert Kennedy Jr would take an entirely different direction from his powerful father.

Despite being a young teenager during these years in London under the influence of his powerful father, Bobby found the courage to break away from that influence, the mentorship of his father’s circle of antisemitic friends, and the antisemitic rhetoric  of the times

In 1968 this son would be killed by an assassin Sirhan Sirhan a devoted Palestinian Christian with self-confessed violent rage towards Robert Kennedy for his support of Israel in 1967 over the Six-Day War and his continued commitment to stand with a Jewish State.

Sirhan timed his attack on Bobby exactly one year to the day of the beginning of the six-day war June 5 1967.

RFK Jr,( front right) carrying the coffin of his assassinated father Bobby Kennedy 1968

Bobby made a choice to reject the deep-seated antisemitism of his father and stand with the Jewish people- a decision that would bring his life to a tragic end and leave his children fatherless.

Children like Bobby Kennedy Jr.

It is a triumphal story. The story matters because history is repeating itself we are living in a frightening time of heightened antisemitism as we are hearing and seeing the same antisemitic rhetoric and tropes as in the 1930s.

Bobby Kennedy chose courage over the powerful influence of antisemitism in his own home and the media.

Sadly, RFK Jr inherited the name but not the courage of his father.

Postscript

I strongly condemn my brother’s deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about Covid being engineered for ethnic targeting. His statements do not represent what I believe or what Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights stand for, with our 50+-year track record of protecting rights and standing against racism and all forms of discrimination.