A new documentary, “Sapiro V. Ford: The Jew Who Sued Henry Ford,” tells the story of Jewish lawyer Aaron Sapiro, who in the 1920s sued one of America’s most famous antisemites, industrialist Henry Ford, in U.S. District Court in downtown Detroit.
The libel lawsuit led the automaker to publicly apologize for his antisemitic views and shut down his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, which frequently published antisemitic material and attacked Sapiro, accusing him of being part of an international Jewish conspiracy.
The filmmakers describe the legal case as a milestone for American Jews and “the moment when hate speech went on trial.” The case was framed as a battle of David and Goliath…