Letters to the Editor
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‘Ordering A Counter-Boycott’
Hillel Halkin’s oped calling for a counter-boycott as the best response to a British boycott of Israel that was adopted by the British University and College Union and by Great Britain’s largest trade union, UNISON, is tempered somewhat by his fear of failure [Oped, “Ordering A Counter-Boycott,” June26,2007].
According to Mr. Halkin, Jewish boycotts of Germany in the 1930s failed. Mr. Halkin’s historical memory, however, is faulty. In fact, there was a very successful boycott movement launched by the Jewish War Veterans in March of 1933, immediately after Hitler’s ascension to power. It was energized by the American Jewish Congress in August of that year, and then strengthened still further by the creation of the Joint Boycott Council in 1936.
By October 1937, the results of the boycott of German goods could be seen in every large department store in New York from Macy’s to Sears. There were few German-made products to be found in those stores. That the boycott had an effect on German trade with America was confirmed by the Reich Foreign Ministry in a government report that showed a steep decline in exports to — and imports from — America between 1932 and 1937. Mr. Halkin’s call is actually supported by history and has validity today as well. As he himself concludes, “A counter-boycott is the order of the day.”
HASKEL LOOKSTEIN
New York, N.Y.
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