When you think of Henry Ford, you probably think of the Model T. Maybe the assembly line. You picture the man who "put the world on wheels" and basically invented the American middle class by paying workers five dollars a day. It’s a clean, industrialist success story. But there’s a massive, jagged piece of the puzzle that usually gets left out of the high school history books.
The truth is, Henry Ford and Jews had a relationship defined by a relentless, years-long campaign of propaganda that changed the world in ways that are still being felt. It wasn't just a personal quirk or a "product of his time." It was a massive media operation.
💡 You might also like: Smith and Wesson Stock Price: What Most People Get Wrong
Ford didn't just build cars; he built a megaphone for some of the most destructive ideas of the 20th century.
The Newspaper That Changed Everything
In 1918, Ford bought a failing local newspaper called the Dearborn Independent. He wasn't looking for a hobby. He wanted a platform. For the next several years, every Ford dealership in the country was essentially required to act as a subscription agency. If you bought a car, you were often handed a paper.
Starting in 1920, the paper began running a series of articles titled "The International Jew: The World’s Problem." These weren't just "opinion pieces." They were deep-seated, conspiratorial attacks. They blamed Jewish people for everything from the decline of American baseball to the start of World War I. Honestly, the sheer scale of the obsession is hard to wrap your head around unless you look at the archives.
Ford’s editors, primarily William J. Cameron, took the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"—a proven forgery created by the Russian secret police—and presented it as a factual blueprint for world domination. Ford didn't care that it was fake. He famously told the New York World in 1921 that the "Protocols" fitted what was going on in the world. He was convinced.
Why did he do it?
It’s tempting to look for a single "aha!" moment where Ford turned against Jewish people. Some historians, like Victoria Saker Woeste, have pointed to his frustration with "Eastern" bankers and his belief that a gold-based financial system was a Jewish plot to enslave farmers. Ford was a populist. He loved the "little guy" (as long as the little guy worked in his factory) and hated the "parasitic" world of high finance. In his mind, those two things were inextricably linked to Jewish identity.
He was also deeply suspicious of modernity. He hated jazz. He hated "loose" morals. He hated anything that threatened his vision of a clean, agrarian, disciplined America. To Ford, Jewish influence was the catalyst for all that "rot."
The Global Echo and the Nazi Connection
This is where things get truly dark. You can’t talk about Henry Ford and Jews without talking about Germany.
While Ford was churning out his pamphlets in Michigan, a young, disgruntled politician in Munich was reading them. That politician was Adolf Hitler. In the early 1920s, Ford was actually one of the few Americans Hitler openly admired. In Mein Kampf, Ford is the only American mentioned by name. Hitler saw him as a hero—a man standing up to the "Jewish menace" in the heart of the capitalist West.
- The Grand Cross of the German Eagle: In 1938, on his 75th birthday, Ford accepted the highest medal Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner. It wasn't a secret. He wore it.
- Translation and Distribution: The Dearborn Independent articles were translated into German and distributed widely. They became a staple of Nazi propaganda long before the party took power.
- The Portrait: Visitors to Hitler’s office in the 1930s reported seeing a large portrait of Henry Ford on the wall.
It’s easy to say Ford didn't know what his words would lead to. But the evidence suggests he was well aware of his popularity in Germany. Even as reports of Nazi violence began to filter back to the U.S., Ford remained largely silent or doubled down on his isolationist views.
The Lawsuit That Finally Stopped the Presses
For years, Jewish organizations like the American Jewish Committee tried to reason with Ford. They wrote letters. They staged boycotts. Nothing worked. Ford was too rich and too powerful to care about bad PR.
That changed because of a man named Aaron Sapiro.
Sapiro was a lawyer and a leader in the agricultural cooperative movement. The Dearborn Independent attacked him personally, claiming his work with farmers was part of a Jewish conspiracy to control the food supply. Sapiro didn't just complain; he sued for libel.
The 1927 trial was a circus. It was the one thing Ford couldn't control. He was eventually subpoenaed to testify, and rather than face a cross-examination that would have exposed the depths of his ignorance and prejudice, he orchestrated a "settlement."
He issued a public apology. He claimed he was "shocked" to learn what was being published in his own newspaper. He blamed his subordinates. It was, by almost all historical accounts, a total lie. He knew exactly what was in the paper. But the apology served its purpose. The Dearborn Independent was shut down, and the "International Jew" pamphlets were supposedly pulled from circulation.
Of course, they weren't really gone. They had already been distributed by the millions.
Examining the "But He Hired Jewish People" Argument
You’ll often hear Ford apologists bring up the fact that he had Jewish employees or that he was friends with certain Jewish individuals. It’s the "some of my best friends are..." defense.
It's true that Ford employed Jewish people in his factories. He even had a long-standing friendship with the famous architect Albert Kahn, who designed many of Ford’s most iconic plants. Kahn was Jewish. Ford respected Kahn’s genius, but he seemingly compartmentalized it. In Ford’s mind, there were "good" Jews who worked hard and contributed to his vision, and then there was the "International Jew"—the shadowy figure in the shadows.
This kind of cognitive dissonance is common in high-level prejudice. It allowed Ford to benefit from Jewish talent while simultaneously funding a global campaign against Jewish people as a group.
The Long Shadow of Ford’s Propaganda
Even today, if you go into certain dark corners of the internet, you’ll find PDF versions of "The International Jew." It’s still a foundational text for white supremacist groups. This is the tragic part of the story. The cars Ford built are mostly scrap metal now, but the conspiracy theories he helped mainstream are still alive.
We have to look at Ford as a complicated, often contradictory figure. He was a mechanical genius. He was a visionary. He was also a man who used his immense wealth to spread hate. You can’t separate those things. They are both part of the Ford legacy.
How to approach this history today
Understanding the history of Henry Ford and Jews isn't about "canceling" a dead man. It's about media literacy and the responsibility of power.
- Acknowledge the complexity: You can appreciate the engineering of a 1932 Ford V8 while also acknowledging that the man who built it caused real harm.
- Trace the sources: When you see modern conspiracy theories about "globalists" or "international bankers," look at the language. Much of it is a direct descendant of the Dearborn Independent.
- Support historical preservation: Organizations like the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn have had to grapple with this history. They don't hide it anymore; they document it. Supporting museums that tell the "full" story—warts and all—is vital.
The biggest mistake is thinking this was just a "minor flaw" in Ford's character. It was a central part of his worldview. He believed he was saving America. Instead, he provided a playbook for some of the worst atrocities of the modern era.
Actionable Steps for Further Learning
If you want to move beyond the surface-level history, here is how you can actually engage with this topic in a meaningful way:
- Read the Primary Sources (Critically): Don't just take a YouTuber's word for it. Look at the digital archives of the Dearborn Independent at the University of Michigan or the Library of Congress. Seeing the actual layout of the paper makes the propaganda feel much more real.
- Visit the Holocaust Memorial Center: Specifically, look for their exhibits on the origins of Nazi propaganda in the United States. They do a great job of connecting Ford's writings to the rise of the Third Reich.
- Read "The People's Tycoon": This biography by Steven Watts is widely considered one of the best. It doesn't shy away from the antisemitism but also explains Ford's massive impact on American culture. It gives you the "why" behind the "what."
- Audit Your Own Information Streams: Ford's power came from his ability to bypass traditional media and go straight to his customers. Think about how modern algorithms do the same thing today. The tactics haven't changed that much; only the technology has.
History isn't a museum piece. It’s a set of tools. By understanding what happened with Henry Ford, we’re better equipped to spot the same patterns when they show up in our social media feeds today. It's about being a conscious consumer of both products and information.