Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) remains one of the greatest and most prolific inventors of all time. Although perhaps best known for his incandescent lamp (1879), he held more than 1,000 patents and his inventions include the phonograph, the mimeograph machine, the microphone, and the motion picture camera.
“The Wizard of Menlo Park” was also one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention and, as such, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. He developed a system of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories, a crucial development in the modern industrialized world.
Among Edison’s greatest inventions is the alkaline storage battery. In this very rare June 18, 1924 correspondence on his Edison Laboratory letterhead, the signature evidencing his characteristic “Edison umbrella,” he writes to the president of the Ohio Copper Company of Utah regarding the possible use of a copper cement in the manufacture of batteries:
I have received your letter of June 17th, in regard to your copper cement. Possibly we might be able to use this if the tin, arsenic, and iron does not interfere. We could not tell, however, except by actual use in batteries and a time test.
If the price is attractive we might start a test lot. At present we use copper scales from rolling mills. Please send sample and price per unit of copper.
Sadly, Edison’s genius and his monumental contributions to the world are marred by his virulent anti-Semitism. In Invention of Solitude, Paul Auster writes that his father was hired briefly as Edison’s library assistant “only to have the job taken away from him the next day because Edison learned he was a Jew.”
In a letter to Isaac Markens, author of the seminal The Hebrews in America (1888), Edison wrote that there are “terrible examples” of Jews in mercantile pursuits; that this is why the “meddling Jew” is so disliked; that he had great hope that, through more exposure to American life, Jews would “cease to be so clannish;” and that being rich is a Jewish “racial characteristic…I wish the Jews would all quit making money.”
In What Did They Think of the Jews? Allan Gould writes:
The evidence seems to indicate that Edison shared the Populist notion that Wall Street was dominated by Jews, and it was the Jews in the financial professions whom Edison resented. If Edison was anti-Semitic, as his notes to automaker Henry Ford indicate, then it appears to be the unique form of the disease “economic anti-Semitism.”
In the 1977 biography The Man Who Made the Future, Ronald W. Clark notes that
As early as October 1914, little more than two months after the German armies had invaded France and Belgium, Edison was being reported [by the Dearborn Independent] as stating that one cause of the war had been the commercial rise of Germany, that the Jews had been largely responsible for German business success and that the militarists which govern the country do their bidding. Protests were immediate and loud. Edison tried to explain himself, saying that he had merely wanted to praise Jews for their ability. “However,” said Henry Ford’s biographers in dealing with the incident, “a number of Edison’s letters to Ford and E.G. Liebold [managing editor of the Independent] show a distinct anti-Semitic bias.” There is other evidence. Edison once said that his definition of a successful invention was “something that is so practical that a Polish Jew will buy it” while to a post-war employee he once claimed: “There are lots of bad Jews. Soon as they knew I was going to use a special wax for my cylinder records they hacked up the price on me. But I fooled them – I changed over to celluloid.”
In addition, many of Edison’s short films unabashedly employed anti-Semitic stereotypes for comedic effect. For example, in “Cohen’s Advertising Scheme” (1904), a Jewish proprietor who seemingly performed an act of generosity was merely scheming to increase his business; in “Our Hebrew Friends” (1907), two stereotypical Jews get into a violent fight and the Jewish merchant bribes the responding police officer, after which they celebrate their cunning; and in “Cohen’s Fire Sale” (1907), the protagonist successfully commits insurance fraud and, at the end of the film, is unable to kiss his fiancée because his huge nose gets in the way.
The synthesized theme underlying these early films is crafty Jews who – legally or illegally – take commercial advantage of innocent people.
There is also evidence that Edison’s financial legacy helped to fuel the Institute for Historical Review, a movement dedicated to denying the Holocaust ever occurred. Part of Edison’s fortune devolved upon a grandniece, Jean Edison-Farrel, who in turn willed her money to the IHR. Edison is often cited by the Journal of Historical Review as one of the great men who supported the cause of Holocaust-denial
However, notwithstanding his anti-Semitism, Edison was first and foremost a practical businessman. As such – and most ironically, given his characterization of Jews as money-driven – when there was money to be made from Jews, he was not at all reticent in catering to them, particularly since Jews were always great consumers of culture and the arts, including music.
Exhibited here are two supplements to Edison’s Record Catalogue issued by his National Phonograph Company out of Orange, New Jersey. The first, dated September 1906, features “six new Hebrew selections” including a selection of solos by famous Jewish tenor Solomon Smulewitz. As the notes on the verso explain:
All of these songs have been selected because of special demands from the public, each composition being very popular among the Hebrews. Mr. Smulewitz, the artist who sings them, is prominent in the musical world. He is the author of about 250 different musical compositions, including three successful operettas. Mr. Smulewitz is a very fine tenor and his voice is especially suitable for Record singing.
Songwriter, lyricist, bard, poet, actor, wedding jester and entertainer, balladeer, and early recording artist, Solomon Shmulewitz-Small (1868 – 1943) was one of the most gifted and productive early Yiddish composers/performers. His subject matter included Torah tales, Jewish holidays and observances, Jewish history, current events including Jewish immigration issues, and American patriotism.
The second supplement, dated December 1, 1907, features “12 New Hebrew Selections” including six songs sung by Smulewitz and another six sung by tenor Kalman Juvelier (1863 – 1939), all with “orchestra accompaniment.” Born in Ukraine, Juvelier came to the United States in 1900 and became a much-beloved Jewish singer and actor who performed chazanut (cantorial works) as part of his recorded repertoire.
A furor developed in 1977 over a souvenir sheet featuring Edison (along with Alexander Graham Bell) on a commemorative stamp sheetlet the Israeli Postal Authority released for a stamp exhibition in Hong Kong. Being memorialized on an Israeli stamp is a great honor, one that had previously been extended to such distinguished non-Jews as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Mozart, and Raoul Wallenberg. According to an Israeli spokeswoman, the purpose of the souvenir sheet was to show the world Israel’s “openness to universal themes.”
While anti-Semitism sadly endures as a “universal theme,” many considered an Israeli philatelic salutation to an anti-Semite unfortunate, inappropriate, and embarrassing.
