Anti-Semitism and the Economic Crisis

[question everything]

APRIL 7, 2009

Anti-Semitism and the Economic Crisis
Many people still blame Jews for capitalism's faults.

By IRA STOLL
WSJ

Walking down the street in my solidly upper-middle-class New York City neighborhood the other day was a neatly dressed man angrily cursing into his cell phone about "Jew Wall Street bankers." I was headed in the opposite direction and didn't stop to interview him about his particular grievances, but the brief encounter crystallized for me a foreboding that the financial crisis may trigger a new outbreak of anti-Semitism.

It is a fear that is being articulated ever more widely. President Bill Clinton's secretary of labor, Robert Reich, frets on his blog, "History shows how effective demagogic ravings can be when a public is stressed economically." He warns that Jews, along with gays and blacks, could become victims of populist rage. In the New York Jewish Week newspaper, a column by Rabbi Ronald Price of the Union for Traditional Judaism begins, "In the 1930s, as Germany's economy collapsed, the finger was pointed at the Jews and the Nazis ascended to power. The famous Dreyfus Affair, in which a Jew was falsely accused of treason in France, followed on the heels of economic turmoil."

(snip)

Lest this seem overly crude economic determinism, consider that the Jews have been victims not only of unrest prompted by economic distress but of attempts to remedy such economic distress with socialism. Take it from Friedrich Hayek, the late Nobel Prize winning Austrian economist. In "The Road to Serfdom," Hayek wrote, "In Germany and Austria the Jew had come to be regarded as the representative of Capitalism." Thus, the response in those countries, National Socialism, was an attack on both capitalism and the Jews.

There are ample indicators of current anti-Semitic attitudes. A poll conducted recently in Europe by the Anti-Defamation League found 74% of Spaniards believe Jews "have too much power in international financial markets," while 67% of Hungarians believe Jews "have too much power in the business world." Here in America, the Web site of National Journal is hosting an "expert blog" by former CIA official Michael Scheuer, now a professor at Georgetown, complaining of a "fifth column of pro-Israel U.S. citizens" who are "unquestionably enemies of America's republican experiment." And over at Yahoo! Finance, the message board discussing Goldman Sachs is rife with comments about "Jew pigs" and the "Zionist Federal Reserve."

(snip)

As for the idea that Jewish professional, political, and economic success in America is a guarantee of security, that, too, has its risks. As Yuri Sleskine recounted in his book "The Jewish Century," in 1900 Vienna more than half of the lawyers, doctors and professional journalists were Jewish, as were 70% of the members of the stock exchange. In Germany, after World War I but before the Nazis came to power, Jews served as finance minister and as foreign minister. Such achievements have a way of being fleeting.

(snip)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123906114937094859.html

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I lived in Iowa in the 80s during the farm crisis, and remember the complaints about the "Jewish bankers" who.... let the farmers borrow too much (nothing new under the sun..)

[mike_c]

1. some people are genuinely antisemitic, and I think those folks...

...simply become more vocal when they have broader grievances to blame someone for, and though they might be less vocal when times are better, they likely aren't any less antisemitic. I don't think that hard economic times necessarily makes other folks antisemitic, at least not unless the hateful few find an audience to spew their vitriol to, and most simply shake their heads at the anger even then. At least, that's what I hope.

It might be a mistake to attribute comments like those in the OP to "rising" antisemitism. More likely, they're the result of rising anger, frustration, and despair among people who were already antisemitic, and who tend to blame all their troubles on "the Jews."

[Democracyinkind]

3. It does in the sense that antisemites can only persuade rational people

.. after they have hit the ground.
No prospering median Joe stops for the guy shouting "joooooooo" on the soapbox.
The drunk, desperate median Joe usually does.

Simplistic, but true.

[Democracyinkind]

2. This is important - it's a historical fact thanks for the post!

... you should see that shit that is going down in the conspiracy world right now. The discussions about the protocols has come up like every week on most boards.
Try to contemplate that... We're sharing a country with people who believe the exact same bogus shit the Nazis did.
And it's totally Bogus, trust me, I'm an expert :-)

[Behind the Aegis]

4. Very interesting, but not at all surprising.

This is as predictable as the rising of the sun. Bigotry against Jews in regards to money is old hat. I still hear people talk about how they "Jewed down" someone on price. There are also veiled remarks in all political forums about Jews and money and it sometimes leaks over into discussions about Israel.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Yes, hard economic times always bring out the racists and xenophobes...

and inevitably all those old stereotypes about 'Jews controlling the banks' and 'not being loyal citizens' get resurrected.

[tama]

6. Shylock

There is historical background. In the good old days Catholic Church forbade usury aka taking interest on a loan considering usury a sin, just like Islam forbids today; AFAIK jews had (have?) similar law but it was limited to transactions between jews but not with gentiles.

AFAIK it not exaggeraton but historical fact that many of early and later progroms were debt clearing events by TPTB (who got indebted to finance wars etc. fun) of those times, disguised as racist/religious bigotry and hatred.

Antisemitism is very stupid and evil, but even more stupid and evil is usury.

[question everything]

7. I don't think that Jews chose to be money lenders and bankers

After all, their lives in Biblical Judea were agricultural ones.

However, once exiles, they were not allowed to own land, were banned from most professions, even in our country as recently as the 70s, I think, so the only way to make a living was in trade and finance.

Interesting comment, though, that many of the persecutions were behind eliminating debt.

Some 20 years ago we had a tour of Zurich, and the guide showed us the Medieval Jewish Ghetto adding that after the town rulers built the city with Jewish money, they promptly exiled them.

[ikojo]

9. Correct. Jews were FORCED into banking and money lending

Jews could not be citizens of the many countries in which they lived because citizenship was contingent upon being a Christian. Since they were not citizens they were prohibited from being land owners. That didn't keep the powers that be from using them to collect rents from the peasants (and thus they were seen by the peasants as representatives of the land lords who abused them).

Judaism is very much an agricultural based religion, just look at the festivals. Also within Judaism is the belief that the first question one is asked in the other world is how did you conduct your business affairs? Bernie Madoff and others like him are in deep trouble!!

[Doctor_J]

8. Don't worry. Big Media and Hate Radio will make sure that everything

is blamed on "liberals", "socialists", "Democrats", etc. this time. Bizarre that WSJ would worry about what happens to the rich :eyes:

[ikojo]

10. For many on the far right the words, liberal, socialist

Hollywood and Democrat are code for J-E-W-S. They KNOW they can't get on mainstream media and say Jew, Jew, Jew but they CAN get on and say liberal, socialist, Democrat and Hollywood elite or New York bankers. Oh trust me if I went to parts of St Louis and asked for a description of a what a New York banker looks like the description most likely would come out what the describer sees as a Jew.

[Doctor_J]

11. Maybe, but think Pelosi and Obama and Barney Frank are more reviled

and in more danger from the loonies than any bankers (or any Jews).

[MasonJar]

12. One ironical point (unintended by the article) is that just as people

think Jews do have enormous power in the business/finance world. Note the Viennese example, half of lawyers, doctors, etcs. were Jews and 70% of the stockbrokers. One of the most unsavory examples is Madoff, who was not only crooked , but also ornery. Most of the people he fleeced were his own Jewish friends and their friends. Elie Weisel has said he will never forgive Madoff; Weisel had most of his Foundation money with Madoff. Money, which I assume, was mainly used for the benefit of Jewish people. I am not saying that the Jewish bankers/Wall Streeters are any more despicable than the Christian or Muslim or etc. banker cheaters. I am just commenting that if a larger number are Jewish then the likelihood is that a larger number of the culpable will be Jewish. I have no idea of the numbers, this is just an observation, generated by the article.