Anticapitalism and the Emergence of Antisemitism. Stephanie Chasin

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      Stephanie Chasin

      Anticapitalism and the Emergence of Antisemitism

       Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Chasin, Stephanie M., author.

      Title: Anticapitalism and the emergence of antisemitism / Stephanie M. Chasin.

      Description: New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2020.

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2019022449 | ISBN 978-1-4331-7087-4 (hardback: alk. paper)

      ISBN 978-1-4331-7084-3 (ebook pdf)

      ISBN 978-1-4331-7085-0 (epub) | ISBN 978-1-4331-7086-7 (mobi)

      Subjects: LCSH: Antisemitism—Europe, Western—History. | Antisemitism—Europe—History. | Capitalism—Europe—History.

      Classification: LCC DS146.E85 C427 | DDC 305.892/404—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019022449

      DOI 10.3726/b15877

      Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.

      Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

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      About the author

      Stephanie M. Chasin earned her Ph.D. from UCLA. She taught at UC Irvine and UCLA as a visiting lecturer and worked as an independent researcher. Presently, she is an independent scholar specializing in Jewish and European history.

      About the book

      The longest-lived stereotype of Jews with the broadest appeal is the idea that Jews are money-driven. From the fi ctional moneylender Shylock demanding his pound of fl esh to the Wall Street banker, for centuries Jews have been portrayed as caring only for profi t and motivated by greed. This is a construction that is allied to the history of anticapitalism. Whether medieval theologians or antiglobalist protesters, capitalism is commonly criticized as exploitative and immoral as are the providers of capital. This book tells the story of how, when, and where Jews and capital became negatively stereotyped. With a new perspective, it places the issue of antisemitism within a larger ideological question, debated since the beginnings of capitalism. Is making money off money immoral and is there such a thing as “excessive” profi t? The book shows that Jews were not the sole creditors or even the dominant ones, that their history was not one of unceasing hostility, and that it is when that stereotype of Jews and money is a political tool that it is at its most dangerous.

      This eBook can be cited

      This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

      Contents

Introduction

1. “The Shadowy Realm of Usury”

2. “The Purses and Leeches of Princes”

       3. “The Filthy Rich”

       4. “In the Name of God and Profit”

       5. A Dangerous Game of Monopoly

       6. The Virtue of Vice

       7. The “Regeneration” of Jewish Usurers

       8. The Globalization of Capital

       9. Sharing the Wealth

       10. The “Tyranny of Usury” Conspiracy

       11. “Mr. Moneybags”

       Index

Introduction

A 1933 definition of the word “Jew” in the Oxford English Dictionary reads: “As a name of opprobrium: spec. applied to a grasping or extortionate person.” Even as late as the 1970s, the term “Jew” was commonly used to refer to a greedy person. The link between Jews and money is, as one writer noted, a “terribly durable myth,” that has ebbed, halted, lay dormant, and flowed again through history. A recent upswing in antisemitism in Europe and the US includes comments made by public officials about Jews and finance that some years ago would have ended in a resignation. In February 2019, Ilhan Omar, the Democratic representative for Minnesota, tweeted that the relationship between the US and Israel was “all about the Benjamins.” In France, Yellow Vest protesters (Gilet Jaune) protested outside the Rothschilds bank in Paris, holding signs referring to “Banksters” and condemning “slavery by usury” (l’esclavage par l’usure). In England, the Labour party is rife with antisemitism, and one slogan used by some supporters twisted Jeremy Corbyn’s mantra, “For the many, not the few,” replacing the last word with “Jew.” In 2018, Corbyn defended a 2012 mural by the American artist Mear One which depicts hook-nosed Jewish bankers sitting at a large Monopoly table stacked with money. The table rests on the backs of faceless black men. In March 2019, a carnival float by the group Vismooiln in the Belgian city of Aalst, Belgium, featured a grotesque version of two Orthodox Jews. While their hands ←vii | viii→grabbed moneybags, a rat sat on top of another sack filled with cash. The float was decorated with gold and silver coins. The response by the float makers was that it was a piece of satire, no different to the polemical cartoons put out by the magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.¹

This idea that Jews are money-driven and that capitalism is Jewish has a long history. This longstanding myth is the subject of this book. It explores the interconnection that ran, and still runs, across the political and social spectrum and was constructed over centuries by critics of capitalism. From medieval usury (lending at interest) to modern capitalism, Jews were depicted as the bearers of this economic system that has been denounced as everything from extortionate to evil. In the modern era, German economists Karl Marx and Werner Sombart were two of the leading proponents to claim that capitalism was a Jewish invention and formed what was called the “Jewish spirit,” in their respective books Zur Judenfrage (1843) and Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben (1911).²

Notwithstanding