Yeah decades, plural, it's around that time period The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 9, 1865) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kike#Etymology The earliest recorded use of the word dates to the 1880s.[1][2][3] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it may be an alteration of the endings –ki or –ky common in the personal names of Jews in eastern Europe who immigrated to the United States in the early 20th century.[1] A variation or expansion of this theory published in Our Crowd, by Stephen Birmingham, postulates that the term "kike" was coined as a put-down by the assimilated U.S. Jews from Germany to identify eastern European and Russian Jews: "Because many Russian [Jewish] names ended in 'ki', they were called 'kikes'—a German Jewish contribution to the American vernacular. The name then proceeded to be co-opted by non-Jews as it gained prominence in its usage in society, and was later used as a general derogatory slur." The Encyclopedia of Swearing suggests that Leo Rosten's suggestion is the most likely.[3] He stated that: The word kike was born on Ellis Island when there were Jewish migrants who were also illiterate (or could not use Latin alphabet letters). When asked to sign the entry-forms with the customary "X", the Jewish immigrants would refuse, because they associated an X with the cross of Christianity. Instead, they drew a circle as the signature on the entry-forms. The Yiddish word for "circle" is kikel (pronounced KY - kel), and for "little circle", kikeleh. Before long the immigration inspectors were calling anyone who signed with an 'O' instead of an 'X' a kikel or kikeleh or kikee or, finally and succinctly, kike."[4] Compounding the mysterious origin of this term, in 1864 in the UK the word ike or ikey was used as a derogatory term for Jews, which derived from the name "Isaac", a common Jewish name.[3][5] Usage Some sources say that the first use was on Ellis Island as a term for Jewish people,[6] others that it was used primarily by Jewish-Americans to put down Jewish immigrants.[3] In a travel report from 1937 for the German-Jewish publication Der Morgen, Joachim Prinz, writing of the situation of Jewish immigrants in the US, mentions the word as being used by Jews to refer contemptuously to other (Eastern) Jews: Es ist nicht erhebend zu sehen, wie verworren die Vorstellungen sind, wie wenig die Einwanderer gelernt haben, wie glücklich sie teilweise sind, dem Judenschicksal entsprungen zu sein, und wie überheblich sie oft sind. Es macht traurig, daß sie in manchen Kreisen sehr unbeliebt sind, und man wundert sich über die Dummheit derer, die die Ostjuden (von denen sie ja doch gestützt werden!) verächtlich „Kikes‟ nennen […][7] It is not uplifting to see how confused the perceptions are, how little the immigrants have learnt, how happy some of them are to have escaped the life of a Jew [or: the Jewish fate], and how haughty many of them are. It is saddening that they are very unpopular in many circles, and bewildering is the stupidity of those who contemptuously call the Eastern Jews (who support them after all!) "kikes" […] ... Also this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overman_Committee The Overman Committee was a special subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary chaired by North Carolina Democrat Lee Slater Overman. Between September 1918 and June 1919, it investigated German and Bolshevik elements in the United States. It was an early forerunner of the better known House Un-American Activities Committee, and represented the first congressional committee investigation of communism. The committee's final report was released in June 1919. It reported on German propaganda, Bolshevism, and other "un-American activities" in the United States and on likely effects of communism's implementation in the United States. It described German, but not communist, propaganda efforts. The committee's report and hearings were instrumental in fostering anti-Bolshevik opinion. https://archive.org/stream/cu31924030480051/cu31924030480051_djvu.txt Full text of "Bolshevik propaganda. Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on the judiciary, United States Senate, Sixty-fifth Congress, third session and thereafter, pursuant to S. Res. 439 and 469. February 11, 1919, to March 10, 1919" >>a number of us were imjDressed with the strong Yiddish element in this thing right from the start, and it soon became evident that more than half of the agi- tators in the so-called Bolshevik movement were Yiddish. >>Senator Nelsox. Hebrews? >>Mr. Siiiox'.s. They were Hebrews, apostate Jews. I do not want to say anything against the Jews, as such. I am not in sympathy with the anti-Semitic movement, never have been, and do not ever expect to be. I am against it. I abhor all pogroms of whatever kind. But I have a firm conviction that this thing is Yiddish, and that one of its bases is found in the East Side of New York. >>Senator Nelson. Trotsky came over from New York during that summer, did he not? >>Mr. Simons. He did. ... >>America has many potential agents in soviet positions. While it is not true that 265 out of 379 members of the Petrograd soviet came from America, there are perhaps '20 or 25 there, and in almost every soviet there are one or two immigrants who hold positions of influence. ... poal.co/comment/search/East%20Side%20of%20New%20York