Anti Anti-semitism

“With all due respect, I have often wondered why it is that so many Jewish people have been communists.”

This was asked of me in a Q and A session following my speech, some years ago, at the monthly Civitan luncheon in Atlanta. The Civitans are an international group of business and professional leaders who deal with important issues in their local communities. The question — really an old canard — was quite familiar, and I tried to reply as best I could.

Half an hour later, at the close of the session, another questioner asked — again with the ubiquitous and flinch-inducing prologue of all due respect: “I’m not sure if it’s true, but we keep hearing that Jews control the media and the banking system around the world. Is that true?”

The questions were asked deferentially and apologetically, but the echoes of classic anti-Semitic tropes were loud and clear. After trying to respond, I suggested that these two questioners should get together and decide whether Jew are communists or capitalists, for we cannot be both. And I tried to point out — probably without success — the basic irrationality of anti-Jewish prejudice.