Jews and capitalism

One of the main intellectual problems in challenging anti-Semitism is that relatively few have systematically investigated its drivers. It is all too often either seen as a natural phenomenon or explained superficially. Unfortunately it is not possible to tackle anti-Semitism effectively if its causes are not properly understood.

The most perfunctory assertions are along the lines that people are anti-Semitic because they hate Jews. This of course explains nothing as it is a circular argument. Often this kind of claim is behind the description of anti-Semitism as “the oldest hatred” or “the longest hatred”. Hannah Arendt, the great German-Jewish political theorist, referred to this approach as “the fallacy of eternal anti-Semitism”. It almost rules out the possibility that the fundamental drivers of Jew hatred can vary in different places and times. (Stefanie Borkum has written more about this theme in an earlier article on the Radicalism of fools site).

All too often alternative explanations are superficial. One common approach is to point to anti-Jewish passages in Christian or Islamic texts as at least part of the story. But this procedure begs the question of why these are taken seriously by some and not by others. Or why people pay attention to them at some times and not others.

An alternative approach, also criticised by Arendt, is to talk of how Jews are scapegoated in certain situations. This only begs the question of why Jews in particular seem prone to being blamed for problems. The allegation implies that anti-Semites manipulate hostility to Jews for their own benefit. For example, to cynically deflect blame on to Jews for financial crises or high unemployment. But this ignores the fact that anti-Semites are all too often sincere in their poisonous beliefs.

One productive route to explore to understand anti-Semitism is therefore to examine the relationship between Jews and capitalism. Anti-Semitism often takes the form of a contorted anti-capitalism. The market economy, at least in its financial aspects, is sincerely understood as somehow Jewish in character. In the present day this is generally expressed as an unhinged hostility to Jews as supposedly representing the immense power of global finance.

Capitalism and the Jews by Jerry Z Muller, now a professor emeritus of history at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC, provides a good starting point for examining this debate. After his introduction it consists of four essays: capitalism and the Jews in modern European thought, the Jewish response to capitalism, radical anti-capitalism, and the economics of nationalism and the fate of the Jews in 20th century Europe. All of them are interesting but the focus here will be on the first chapter.

The first thing to note is that Europe has a long history linking Jews to money and then to capitalism. It is not anti-Semitic to simply observe that fact. Muller dates the start of this relationship to the 12th century. At the time the Christian church decided to prevent what it regarded as the evil of usury by allowing Jews to engage in that forbidden activity (P23). Evidently Jews were in any case condemned to eternal damnation, as far as the church was concerned, because of their repudiation of Christ. This association of Jews with moneymaking would over time also become a broader association with commerce.

It should be noted that some saw this linkage in a positive light. For example, Montesquieu, one of the great Enlightenment thinkers, writing in his Spirit of Law (1848), evidently attributed the rise of civilisation and good government in Europe to the Jews (p20). In his view the Jews, by making valuables intangible, put money beyond the oppressive hands of princes. This meant the ruling elites had to operate more prudently to attain prosperity.

However, many have historically read the association in a negative way. The common premise was that the wealth of humanity was more-or-less fixed. Therefore if the Jews earned money from what was conceived of as usury then they must, from this premise, have taken it from someone else. In the High Middle Ages the discussion was influenced by Aristotle’s thoughts on money lending which were being rediscovered at the time.

Over time this understanding of finance has morphed into a broader association of Jews with the downsides of the market economy. As Muller observers, for many European intellectuals “Jews served as kind of metaphor-turned flesh for capitalism”. He goes on to say that many “regarded Jews as the agents of creative destruction characteristic of capitalism” (p16). In this context, German anti-Semites sometimes condemned Jews as Luftmenschen, literally “people of the air”, where air symbolised trade and finance. Jews were seen as personifying the parasitic and unproductive side of capitalism.

Although the relationship between Jews and capitalism is not so often discussed nowadays it has been a subject of immense interest at times. Muller quotes a study which estimates 2,500 works by German political writers were published on the topic between 1815 and 1850. These included Marx’s controversial 1844 essay on the Jewish question (that will be discussed on this site at another time).

In the early 20th century there was also a heated debate in Germany, involving heavyweight thinkers, on the relationship between Jews and capitalism. Werner Sombart, who was well known at the time, argued that Jews were a key driver of capitalist development. In contrast, Max Weber, one of the founders of sociology, emphasised the importance of the Protestant ethic. Muller also includes Georg Simmel, who focused on the relationship between money and capitalism, as another figure in this debate.

There is no space here to go into the other key areas explored by Muller. For instance, he argues the association of Jews with anti-capitalism – which they were linked to as well as capitalism - is exaggerated.

The key point here is that skewed views of the connection between Jews and financial capitalism have played a key role in shaping modern anti-Semitism. However, it should be recognised that this factor did not act in isolation. It was combined in the 19th century with a new racial conception of the Jews as opposed to a religious one.

This idea of Jews as a race, as well as the notion of Jews as symbolic of modernity, will be explored in future articles.

Correction: The original version of this article mistakenly referred to the "fallacy of external" (sic) anti-Semitism. It should of course be "eternal anti-Semitism". Apologies.

This idea of Jews as a race, as well as the notion of Jews as symbolic of modernity, will be explored in future articles.

Further reading