I watched the first part of the Ken Burns documentary and there were huge rallies, protests, and marches all over the US. Christians as well as Jews participated. Rabbi Stephen Wise was very influential in getting people on board.
The problem for Roosevelt was that he was dealing with millions of Americans who were pro Nazi and thought Hitler was a great man coupled with the resurgent KKK, also with millions of members and supporters. Plus, there were people who believed that Roosevelt was Jewish and had changed his name from "Rosenberg" despite the fact that it was well known at the time that the Dutch had settled New Amsterdam in the early 1600s.
In addition, many Americans were almost completely anti immigration believing in "replacement theory", which was new at that time. Back then, replacement theory meant that white Protestants would be replaced by nonwhites and/or people of other faiths. Catholics were not all that more welcome than Jews. On top of that, the absurd theory of eugenics was widely believed. Despite the efforts of scientists and some politicians to debunk it, people believed that where you came from made you more or less intelligent and worthwhile. Naturally, the whiter people, those from the UK and Scandinavian countries, were deemed to be superior. Of course, those were generally Protestant countries with the exception of Ireland and the Irish weren't especially welcome because they were Catholic.
Stephanie Shlasky
