Why don't people realize the traditional relationship between Anti-Semitism and Anti-Capitalism?

Question

the following is copied from: http://www.reason.com/news/show/120941.html

The Nazis themselves regarded the left-right convergence as integral to understanding fascism. Adolf Eichmann viewed National Socialism and communism as “quasi-siblings,” explaining in his memoirs that he “inclined towards the left and emphasized socialist aspects every bit as much as nationalist ones.” As late as 1944, Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels publicly celebrated “our socialism,” reminding his war-weary subjects that Germany “alone [has] the best social welfare measures.” Contrast this, he advised, with the Jews, who were the very “incarnation of capitalism.”

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Why isn't the historical connection between Anti-Semitism and Anti-Capitalism more widely recognized?

If you look back at the history of the Spanish Inquisition (which was intentionally designed to run Jews and Muslims out of Spain), you'll find that the reason for starting it was because the Jews were rich and the Catholics in Spain were jealous of them. The Jews have traditionally represented a large amount of merchants and bankers (especially during the Middle Ages when Anti-Semitism was greatest).

Most of the Anti-Semitism in history has ironically also qualified as Anti-Capitalism.

Answer 1

The recent embrace of Judaism by conservatives (and, especially, by conservative Christians) amazes me. It wasn't long ago that Jews weren't allowed in lilly-white, protestant country clubs. Are you so convinced that the end of times is upon us that you are willing to overlook 2000 years of anti-semitism? If so, you are foolish and ill-informed.

Answer 2

You have a peculiar view of history.
It may interest you to know that Karl Marx was a Jew as were many of the prominent activists during the Bolshevik Revolution e.g. Leon Trotsky.
Hitler regarded the Jews and Communists with equal contempt.

Answer 3

I see what you're getting at, but I believe there's many flaws in this logic.

For one, Hitler recieved a great deal of his campaign funding in the early days from industrialists on the pretext he would battle Communism. Nazi Germany attracted a slough of foreign capitalists and investors ready to take advantage of national infrastructure campaigns.. and later on the military.

You're also not mentioning the "love affair" that Nazi's had with Italian Fascists. They believed in the state first, and economics was simply made to benefit the state. Mussolini once equated Fascism with Corporatism. How does this suggest a link between Nazism and real old school socialism?

I think you're also forgetting the political situation in Germany at the time. At the time socialism was very popular. This is actually why the Nazi's called themselves "National Socialists". Doesn't make much sense in practice becuase discrimination of anyone is inherently against the equal re-distribution of wealth which was very characteristic of old school socialism.

Jews were blamed for virtually everything wrong with German society. To suck up to left leaning people while trying to execute their nasty policies towards Jews, The Nazis often tried to tie Jews to Capitalists whom they blamed for the loss of WW1 and the inexperienced and poorly goverend Weimar Republic.

BUT on the other hand you're also forgetting that the Nazis also called Communism, and for that matter the equal re-distribution of wealth in general, as a Jewish scheme. On the one hand they were blaming Jews for being Capitalists, on in the same breath describing them as Communists.

Nazi Germany in practice was very mixed economically. It heavily depended on foreign investment and domestic capitalists for production.. but at the same time they put restrictions on what was to be made, and also created quotas for the automobile, infrastructure (concrete, roads, ect), and especially the arms industry.

So to end.. I don't feel a very strong argument between socialism and discrimination... PARTICULARLY in the case of Nazi Germany. Democratically elected socialist parties have never discriminated against any race or creed. If you have an example of this happening, I would love for you to show it to me.

Answer 4

nice load of crap, selective revisionist history at it's finest.
the real similarity was totalitarian, repression and brutality
All these men were famious as anti capitalist but all were Jews....so where is your theory in the face of fact?
Karl Heinrich Marx was born the third of seven children of a Jewish family in Trier, in the Kingdom of Prussia's Province of the Lower Rhine. His father Heinrich (1777-1838),

Leon Trotsky...born Lev Davidovich Bronstein Jewish Communist as were most of the early founders of communism
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria is now remembered chiefly as the executor of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of the 1930s, Jewish communist hardly anti Semite.
Vladimir Lenin
Born in Simbirsk, Russian Empire (now Ulyanovsk), Lenin was the son of Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov and Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova. His father was a successful Russian official in public education who worked for progressive democracy and free universal education in Russia. The family was of mixed ethnicity, his ancestry being "Russian, Kalmyk, Jewish [1], German and Swedish, and possibly others" according to biographer Dmitri Volkogonov.[2] Lenin was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church.

Answer 5

give me a break

it has happened in the past
the Inquisition is a very good example but
the wave of anti corporatism is definitely not anti Semitic

its about corporate welfare and government corruption in our nation

just to correct one of your points the the Spanish and Italians were not jealous of the Jew they owed them a lot of money and it was a convenant way to not pay

Answer 6

Capitalism and Republicanism is the psychology of imagining that employers and aristocracy are beneficial parent figures, instead of possible criminals practicing deception. Therefore, voting in order to control the property you are paying for isn't needed.

Answer 7

Just because you don't like capitalism doesn't mean you hate Jewish people. I think you're grasping at straws here to start a non-existant debate.

Answer 8

You render a conclusion to a complex subject, with racism, this is your argument.
You are not ready to discuss neoliberalism with me, apparently.

Further readings?
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/econ101/neoliberalDefined.html

Answer 9

Because somebody wrote a book, that does not make it true. The whole idea is not based on sound logic.