Posted on 02/17/2024 4:57:10 PM PST by Jonty30
In the collective memory of American Jewry, the entanglement of Jews and Communists merits hardly a footnote.
—Jerry Z. Muller, Capitalism and the Jews, p. 161
For paid subscribers, Jerry and I will be talking about this topic on Zoom on Monday evening, February 26, at 8 PM New York time. I’ll send out a reminder with a link closer to the date.
In my own memory as an American Jew, the entanglement of Jews and Communists has more significance.
The Harvard Library houses a document “Investigation of Communist Activities in the St. Louis, Mo. area. Hearing” This was a hearing conducted in St. Louis by the United States House Un-American Activities Committee in June of 1956.
One of the witnesses called was my pediatrician, who was Jewish. Another was my mother, who also was Jewish. She testified that in 1945, at age 22, her primary job was working as a stenographer in the office of the Communist Party in St. Louis.
The woman who became my mother was introduced to my father through his sister. My Aunt Sarah was a Communist, as was her husband, a machinist and labor organizer. My mother testified that she herself quit the Communist Party in 1947. My father convinced her to do that. My aunt and uncle were not wedded to the party, but they never gave up the cause. My uncle put his hopes in the brand of Communism practiced by Tito in Yugoslavia.
(Excerpt) Read more at arnoldkling.substack.com ...
This goes for nominal Jews, nominal Christians, and secularists.
Well said.
if you can’t live up to ‘higher standards’ maybe you can force others to live up to ‘higher standards.’
I was shocked, and told my father so:
“Dad, it says here in your High School yearbook that you were President of the “Economic Friendship Club.” In 1936, Dad, that sounds like the name of some sort of Communist youth group! You were... A COMMUNIST?”
My father, a Jewish Republican, smiled.
“Son, Look carefully at that picture. That was a co-ed society... And Communist gals believed in free love.”
My impression was that the attraction of Jews to communism was something like Joseph in Egypt in the bible. It was a way to get ahead and around on the natives. The Egypt Joseph created was one where all the Egyptians were slaves to Pharaoh and ruled by jews. He created the first communist state.
But then the Egyptians rebelled etc
The second communist state was one created by Stalin—who also had a big jewish nomenclature.
Over time the Russians —like the Egyptians—rebelled. And like the egyptians they drove the Jews out.
Indeed.
Interesting—and thanks for the summary. (It’s actually inspired me to go check it out.)
Socialism does a few things.
1. It supposedly allows a person to obtain self-sanctification, because they are supposedly doing works of good.
2. It mollifies the less motivated, because they are kept from experiencing the full consequence of impoverishment, so they are less likely to be bothered by trying to succeed. Why would I try to obtain skills for a better job when I only have to wait for a higher minimum wage to be enacted?
3. It protects the economic advantages that the rich have by keeping those who might become an economic competitor, because you keep draining them of resources that they could otherwise use to get ahead in life. It acts like an economic tread that is set against stairs and set at a high speed. You only get ahead in a socialist system if you can manage to outrun that treadmill.
“No fan of Hitler here, but...”
But what?
God was with Joseph in that endeavor, so claiming he created the first communist state is both a lie and blasphemy. It is absurd to infer that Joseph created a state of affairs where the family, private property and religion were all abolished.
BTW, Joseph was not a Jew and could never be; Judah, the father of the Jews, was his elder half-brother.
God was with Joseph, but Joseph was only dispensing the will of the Pharoah. He wasn’t gathering assets for himself when he was trading grain that sustained people for their lands and cattle.
God would oppose anything that would blaspheme Him in anything Joseph did. Pharaoh’s will could never take precedence.
Not to mention it was the idea of the people themselves to sell themselves to Pharaoh (Gen. 47:19).
IMHO it goes well beyond that. For those who value education and knowledge intellectualism is an aphrodisiac. The idea that you have advanced knowledge and are part of an intellectual elite is very enticing to those who value intellect. It makes one feel unique, different (in a good way), and yes - better than others. Somewhat like being an elite athlete, but an intellectual athlete.
For very silly and indefensible reasons embracing Marxism (and thus being different than the 'uniformed less thans') is a position that has strongly attracted those who want to be thought of as 'intellectuals'. Ironically, Marxism is a philosophy rooted in a complete ignorance of the human spirit and a complete ignorance of economic principles. Nonetheless, go to almost any university campus and you will find ignorant but self-righteous and incredibly fervent followers of Marxism.
There is no question that Joseph traded sustenance in exchange for lands and cattle and other assets. Those assets became property of the Pharoah. That’s what he did, that’s not up for debate.
If you are going to claim that Joseph had clean hands in that, than you’d have to make the claim that it is God’s will for us to transfer our property to the government.
“You will own nothing and be happy.”
The most that Joseph could have done was ensure that any grain given for land and cattle was done with an even hand and nobody was shorted.
Sometimes, as Christians, that’s all we can do is make sure the law is enforced with as little harm to the person as possible.
You must follow the rules, in order to live . . . but they, your overseers, must have a system for violating the rules, so that they live, and reign, over you.
Life is hard, because of the ruling organizations of power, religion, and social structure(s) that violate(s) the rules.
National Socialism in Germany, Russian Socialism, and Jewish Communism|Socialism - all three with power structures - under which, you could swear that you crossed all the "T"'s and dotted all the "i"'s . . . but you lose, and, or, are punished anyway.
Because of the powerful who abuse and violate the rules.
Those Marxists want what I’ve been saying. They want the nice lives that are promised by God, but they don’t want the nice life by living a godly life. They still want to live the lives they want to live.
They want goodness without having to be good.
Bfl
God was with Joseph in that endeavor, so claiming he created the first communist state is both a lie and blasphemy. It is absurd to infer that Joseph created a state of affairs where the family, private property and religion were all abolished.
Yeah, I’ve even heard christian pastors say that Joseph was the first iteration of Jesus.
So I’m just making my own personal observation —based on scripture.
God favored the Hebrews. He did not favor the Egyptians. What happened to the Egyptians was their tough luck/fate/bad judgment/God’s judgment—precisely because of God’s covenant with Jewish people. God favors who he favors. Think of the inverse of this. Is it blasphemy to say that
1000 years later God favored the Assyrians and Babylonians over the Hebrews—for a time—because of the idol worship of the Hebrews. And that’s why Judah and Israel were taken into captivity. This is the sort of thing that the prophets of Israel prophesied even before it happened.
The only source of food during a crippling seven-year famine was the storage bins created buy Joseph, second-in-command to Pharaoh over all the land of Egypt (Genesis 41:44). The people spent all their cash, traded all their livestock, and now have sold their land and their freedom to Pharaoh. He owned everything (Genesis 47:13–21).
That’s the definition of a communist state.
In modern parlance, we fear the people who say “You will own nothing and be happy”
The founders of this country understood something about the importance of private property. The original Declaration of Independence read people have the right to life, liberty, and property. It was later amended to read that “people have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
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