The Franklin Prophecy

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"The Franklin Prophecy", sometimes called "The Franklin Forgery", is an antisemitic speech falsely attributed to Benjamin Franklin, warning of the supposed dangers of admitting Jews to the nascent United States. The speech was purportedly transcribed by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, but was unknown before its appearance in 1934 in the pages of William Dudley Pelley's pro-Nazi weekly magazine Liberation. With linguistic anachronisms, it cannot be genuine. Despite having been repeatedly discredited since its first appearance, the “prophecy” has proved a remarkably durable canard, returning most recently as a popular internet hoax promulgated on usenet groups and antisemitic websites, where it is presented as authentic. Osama Bin Laden has even used this canard briefly in his November 2002 "Letter to the American People."^[1] While its author is not known, many who have investigated the “prophecy” suspect Pelley of having penned it himself.

The US Congress report Anti-Semitism in Europe: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on European Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Relations (2004) states:

"The Franklin "Prophecy" is a classic anti-Semitic canard that falsely claims that American statesman Benjamin Franklin made anti-Jewish statements during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. It has found widening acceptance in Muslim and Arab media, where it has been used to criticize Israel and Jews..."^[2]

Franklin was, in fact, a friend to the Jews of 18th-century America,^[3] and contributed toward the building of Philadelphia's first permanent synagogue.^[4]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• "Was Ben an anti-Semite?" (Benjamin Franklin FAQ). The Franklin Institute. Retrieved on 2007-04-27.
• "The Franklin 'Prophecy': Modern Anti-Semitic Myth Making" (From the April-May 1954 issue of Facts). Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved on 2007-05-07.

[edit] Further Reading

• Allen, Henry Butler. "Franklin and the Jews." The Franklin Institute News. Vol.III, No.4, August 1938, pp.1-2.
• Beard, Charles A. “Exposing the Anti-Semitic Forgery about Franklin.” Jewish Frontier. New York, March 1935, pp.1-13.
• Boller, Paul F., and John George. They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
• Boyd, Julian P. “Society News and Accessions.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Vol 61. April, 1937, pp.233-234.
• Kominsky, Morris. The Hoaxers: Plain Liars, Fancy Liars, and Damned Liars. Branden Press: 1970.
• Lopez, Claude-Anne. “Prophet and Loss.” The New Republic. January 7, 1997.
• Pelley, William Dudley, ed. “Did Benjamin Franklin Say this About the Hebrews?” Liberation. Vol 5, No.24. February 3, 1934.