Something of an enigma is Louis Marshall, whose name heads the list of organized Jewry in America, and who is known as the arch-protester against most things non-Jewish. He is head of nearly every Jewish movement that amounts to anything, and he is chief opponent of practically every non-Jewish movement that promises to amount to something. Yet he is known mostly as a name—and not a very Jewish name at that.
It would be interesting to know how the name of “Marshall” found its way to this Jewish gentleman. It is not a common name, even among Jews who change their names. Louis Marshall is the only “Marshall” listed in the Jewish Encyclopedia, and the only Jewish “Marshall” in the index of the publications of the American Jewish Historical Society. In the list of the annual contributors to the American Jewish Committee are to be found such names as Marshutz, Mayer, Massal, Maremort, Mannheimer, Marx, Morse, Mackler, Marcus, Morris, Moskowitz, Marks, Margolis, Mareck—but only one “Marshall,” and that is Louis. Of any other prominent Jew it may be asked, “Which Straus?” “Which Untermeyer?” “Which Kahn?” “Which Schiff?”—but never, “Which Marshall?” for there is only one.
This in itself would indicate that Marshall is not a Jewish name. It is an American, or an Anglo-Saxon name transplanted into a Jewish family. But how and why are questions to which the public as yet have no answer.
Louis Marshall is head of the American Jewish Committee, and the American Jewish Committee is head of all official Jewish activity in the