Focus asks the reader to pay attention closely to the plot for the meaning, just by its title. This novel approaches the questions of racism and xenophobia from a slightly different angle than the typical responses to those questions. For instance, instead of dealing with the problem of American racism against black people, the novel prefers the slightly less popular version of American racism: Antisemitism in the mid-20th century.
Many people wrongly believe that Antisemitism was a problem of only Nazi sympathizers in Germany, but that is far from the case. Antisemitism was certainly a problem in American, as depicted in the character of Finkelstein. Notice how Finkelstein is rejected for his ethnicity and race, and Newman is rejected because he looks slightly Jewish. This indicates that there is an additional problem with antisemitism, that it is stupid to assume someone can guess another person's ethnicity with any real, consistent accuracy. This just serves to underscore the original refutation of racism, that we're all the same, and that we're in this together.
By forcing non-Jewish characters to endure the gruesome fate of real Jews in Antisemitic America, the novelist shows that at the end of the day, there is no real difference, which means that racism against anyone should never be tolerated, because by allowing hatred, we allow our own interests to become subject to other people's hatred of us.
