In June 1921, Hartford, Connecticut, turned out in force to honor two of the most famous Jewish figures of the age: Dr. Chaim Weizmann, future first president of Israel, and Professor Albert Einstein, whose theory of relativity had made him a household name.
More than 400 automobiles rolled through the city in a grand parade, cheered on by what the newspaper described as nearly the entire population of the capital.
But there was something oddly missing from the procession.
At first, spectators could not quite place it. The parade was full of cars, flags, and excitement, yet one familiar automobile was nowhere to be seen. Only afterward did people realize what had been deliberately left out: the Ford.
The absence was no accident. In protest of the anti-Jewish articles published in Henry Ford’s newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, organizers of the parade issued a firm order: no Ford automobiles were permitted in the line. Not one appeared.
What followed was likely one of the strangest records in early automobile parade history: a massive procession of cars in the 1920s without a single Ford among them.
Fords Barred From Auto Parade For Professor Einstein
HARTFORD, Connecticut. — Everybody who saw the automobile parade Monday in honor of Dr Chaim Weitzman and Prof. Albert Einstein, the relativity expert — and “everybody” means almost the total population of the capital — noticed there was something strange about it.
Just what the unusual feature was could not be determined. Something seemed to be missed.
The day after everybody woke up to what the absent thing was. It was the Flivver [nickname for the Model T].
The Hartford Jews, who arranged the procession in which were more than 400 cars, issued an order: “Positively not Ford machines permitted in line.”
The reason was the anti-Jewish campaign of Ford’s newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, and there was not a single Ford in the whole line.
This is probably a record in the history of automobile parades.
Source: The Jewish Monitor. Fort Worth-Dallas, Tex. June 17, 1921.
