The tapes of Richard Nixon's private Oval Office conversations leave no doubt that America 's 37th president, while appointing Jews to high-level posts and publicly supporting Israel , routinely indulged in anti-Semitic rhetoric. Moment steps back into history, with the help of the tapes themselves and several distinguished scholars - including Mel Small, professor of History at Wayne State -- who have written about this complex and controversial figure. Small said that Nixon had a general dislike for Jews that went beyond the fact that he disliked liberal Democrats who were Jewish.