[GladesGuru]

He could have been a Rastafarian, for all the difference it makes to my argument.

Socialism is the Jewish Liberal "schtick" - and for all too long, the European immigrants both swamped the original American Jewish populations in both New York and in the South.

With them came dear lil' Marx.

[rmlew]

The 1880's-1922 wave of immigration brought many radical ideas and movements to the US. Despite Marx's open anti-Semitism, Jews were (and are) disproportionately involved in Communist movements.
I think this has to do wit the circumstances of Eastern European Jewry at the time.
They were obviously dray to anti-traditionalist movements as these had liberated them. However, the CLassical Liberalism (or the deranged French version) was being superceded with local nationalism in the Prussian, Austrian, and Russian Empires. The local liberal nationalist movements were not supportive of Jews. The reaction to the ethnic seperatism in the Russian empire, Pan-Slavism was openly anti-Semitic.
Meanwhile the socialists and communists pledged liberation equality and even earthly paradise.
The chains of the new slavery were quite enticing compared to pograms.