The May 11, 1934 Jewish Exponent cover features a single article — and a bizarre one at that.
Author Israel Bram, M.D., writes a lengthy story accusing Time of being subtly anti-Semitic and includes several letters he wrote to the magazine, as well as the responses he receives denying any such thing.
“For a long time the Jewish citizens of this country have been maligned by the editorial policies of the magazine Time through its insidious anti-Semitism,” Bram wrote. “While the editors of this magazine have appeared fair enough to publish an occasional letter from a Jew … Time persistently follows its apparent avowed policy of subtle anti-Semitism.”
Bram apparently was set off by a 1933 edition of Time that published a front-page photo of infamous Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels.
“Why give this creature the place of honor on your cover-page? Why increase the hero-worshipping of Hitler and his fellow-maniacs?” Bram wrote in one of his letters to Time.
Bram noted that he received no response from the magazine, so he wrote again, this time receiving a reply from I. Van Meter, Time’s editorial secretary. Van Meter wrote that the magazine could only publish a tiny fraction of the letters that it received and noted a missive that it did publish with protests from several Jewish readers.
That didn’t satisfy Bram, who continued his letter-writing campaign — which generated more responses from Van Meter.
“Far from being anti-Semitic, Time makes a particular point of avoiding even the appearance of bias for or against any group, racial, religious or political,” Van Meter wrote.
No explanation satisfied Bram, who concluded that Time would continue its anti-Semitic leanings.
So who was Bram?
A 1955 obituary in the Delaware County Daily Times said the Russian-born goiter specialist was a former instructor in endocrinology at Jefferson Medical College and also the founder of the Bram Institute in Upland, as well as the author of four books and numerous articles related to his medical specialty.
