Marian Estelle Melson Strack

Marian Estelle Melson Strack (formerly Stommel; April 6, 1898 – April 22, 1974) was an American socialite and antisemite. She sparked outrage within the Daughters of the American Revolution after giving an antisemitic speech during the organization's annual convention in New Jersey in 1954, leading to DAR members and Jewish community leaders denouncing her statements.

Early life Strack was born Marian Estelle Melson on April 6, 1898, in Wilmington, Delaware. She was the daughter of Levin F. Melson and lived at 828 Van Buren Street. She made many antisemitic remarks during her speech, including calling kosher markings on canned and packaged goods "clandestine" and claiming that such markiings were evidence of "how a bold minority can impose its will and even its religious observances on an apathetic majority". She went on to say that the markings were "clearly and deliberately planned" to make non-Jewish customers pay "95 percent of the Rabbi's fee". A fellow DAR member, Mrs. Thomas E. Lynn, condemned Strack's speech saying that it went against the American promise of "liberty and justice to all" and the Christian tenet of brotherly love.

Personal life She married Walter H.K. Stommel, of Camden, New Jersey, on February 9, 1918, in a ceremony at the parsonage of the German Lutheran Church in Wilmington, Delaware officiated by Rev. Sigmund G. von Bosse. Her husband was an unnaturalized German subject. She and her son went on a European tour to visit Denmark, Sweden, and Norway in 1923, returning to Delaware aboard the liner Hellig Olav.

Strack was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1968 she hosted DAR President General Betty Newkirk Seimes and sixty other prominent women from various hereditary and lineage societies at her home in Locust, New Jersey.