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Henry Ford’s War on Jews and the Legal Battle against Hate Speech

Date and time

June 26, 2012

About this event

ABF Research Professor, Victoria Saker Woeste, celebrates the publication of her new book, Henry Ford’s War on Jews and the Legal Battle against Hate Speech, with a book launch cocktail reception in Detroit, MI. The book focuses on Henry Ford’s newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, which targeted Aaron Sapiro, a Jewish lawyer and organizer of agricultural co-ops, and other prominent Jews in a series of libelous articles. These anti-Semitic articles caused Sapiro to file suit against Ford in 1925. The case and its ambiguous resolution reveal the tensions in American law and culture between individual freedoms and the status of those seeking equality on the basis of group identity.

The book launch takes place in the “Million Dollar Courtroom” of the Theodore Levin Federal Courthouse in downtown Detroit, MI, the site of the original 1925 Sapiro v. Ford trial. Remarks will be given by ABF Director, Robert L. Nelson, Marc Kruman of Wayne State University’s Center for the Study of Citizenship, Judge Gerald Rosen, Life Benefactor Fellow, Judge Avern Cohn, and author Victoria Saker Woeste.

Location

Theodore Levin Federal Courthouse
231 W Lafayette Blvd.
Detroit, MI 48226

Presentations and notes

Post-event

Henry Ford's War Book Launch

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