The Mexican Committee against Racism and What It Reveals about Relations between Mexican and American Jews

This work reconstructs the origin, organization, development, and disappearance of the Mexican Committee against Racism (Comité Mexicano contra el Racismo, CMR), active in Mexico City from 1944 to 1946, inthe context of the relations between a leading Jewish organization in the United States and a Mexican Jewish institution. The CMR appears in historiography as a Mexican anti-fascist institution, but this research reveals that it was conceived, implemented, financed, and supervised by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), a Jewish social action organization based in the United States, with the aim of fighting against racist and anti-Semitic prejudices, creating a friendly climate towards Jewish-refugee immigration, and quelling anti-American feelings in Mexico. The AJC's involvement was kept a secret for Mexicans in general and for the Jewish community in Mexico. Drawing on archives in Mexico and the United States, this work details the reasons that led to its organization, describes its implementation, explains why the AJC's involvement was kept a secret, and why the CMR failed to prosper and eventually disappeared