User:Slrubenstein/sandbox/Economic history of the Jews

The association of Jews with money (including capitalism, wealth, business, profit, and banking) has been considered by a wide variety of authors, including Abraham Foxman in his book Jews and Money, Gerald Krefetz in his book Jews and Money, Werner Sombart in his book The Jews and Modern Capitalism, J. J. Goldberg in his book Jewish Power, Salo Wittmayer Baron and Arcadius Kahan in their book Economic history of the Jews, Werner Eugen Mosse in his book Jews in the German Economy, Jerry Muller in his book Capitalism and the Jews, Gideon Reuveni in his book The Economy in Jewish History, Derek Penslar in his book Shylock's children: economics and Jewish identity in modern Europe, Jacob Neusner in his book The Economics of the Mishnah, and Karl Marx in his On the Jewish Question.

These authors address topics such as the role of Jews in the rise of capitalism in Europe, the role that the religion of Judaism had in shaping attitudes towards money, the importance of moneylending as an occupation in the Middle Ages, the prevalence of Jews in the establishment of modern banking, cultural attitudes towards wealth, and money-related antisemitism.

The Jewish Bible contains several important passages that govern the charging of interest on loans, which have had enormous impact on the history of lending. The Talmud contains an extensive amount of guidance on financial and business matters.

During the middle ages, Jews were excluded from many occupations, and Christians views moneylending as an unethical profession, so Jews often gravitated towards moneylending as a profession. Throughout Europe, Jews filled the role of Court Jew for virtually every seat of nobility.

Jews played a major role in the rise of capitalism during the nineteenth century in Europe, and were primarily responsible for importing commercial concepts such as negotiable instruments from the Near East.

Modern banking in Europe and the United States was heavily influenced by Jewish financiers, such as the Rothschild family and Warburg family, and Jews were major contributors to the establishment of important investment banks on Wall Street.

Culturally, Jews have viewed wealth as an important tool to defend against persecution and antisemitism. Jews, proportionally, are represented much more heavily in professional occupations, and in occupations that require graduate degrees, such as law and medicine.

Antisemites have often promulgated myths related to money, such as the canard that Jews control the world finances, first promoted in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and later repeated by Henry Ford and his Dearborn Independent. In the modern era, many such myths continue to be widespread in the Islamic world, and in books such as The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews published by the Nation of Islam, and on the internet.

Religion

Rabbinic and Talmudic guidance

The Babylonian Talmud

Jacob Neusner writes that the authors of the Talmud addressed every important problem of economics, ranging from the rules of household management to the laws of money making.

Max Dimont aturytleDerek Penslar analyzed the Talmud's rules governing money. Penslar writes that, in premodern times, Judaism "inextricably" linked economics and religion, and that in the "heyday of rabbinic Judaism" the pursuit of profit was related to the fulfillment of religious commandments." Max Dimont writes that the Talmud's rules on interest were sensible, ethical, and modern, and provided for modest interest rates, but prohibited exorbitant (usurious) rates. Dimont asserts that the Talmud provided laws which regulated business between Jew and Jews, between Jew and state, and between Jews and non-Jews.

An important Talmudic discussion of interest and usury is in Bava Metzia portion of the Talmud.

Marvin Perry states that the Talmud deviates widely from the early Christian approach to money: whereas the New Testament viewed money and profit as "filthy lucre" (1 Tim 3:3), the Talmud took a positive view of money and profit because the Talmud "was written, compiled and edited, taught and interpreted for centuries by rabbis who were merchants, artisans, and professional men, knowledgeable and accepting of business and finance, in theory and practice."

File:Mishna tora44.jpg

Mishneh Torah

According to Penslar, rabbinic commentator Maimonides, in his work Mishneh Torah - a fundamental treatise on Judaism - treated the rule that Jews may charge interest to non-Jews (Deut 23:19–21) as a "positive commandment" or obligation, and that the purpose of the commandment was (he quotes Maimonides) "not to help him [the non-Jew], nor to deal graciously with him, but rather to harm him". Dimont asserts that Maimonides held the progressive view that charging interest on loans was a important prerequisite for commercial activities.

Penslar states that the Talmud contains a large amount of economic material, including many "economic sensibilities" such as the notion that wealth should be enjoyed and the rejection of poverty, but he suggests that the Talmud did not promulgate an identifiable "economic philosophy".

Because the Talmud contains a large amount of economic rules and guidance, Dimont suggests that the Talmud was "an ideal system of international law to regulate the far-flung enterprises of the Jews."

Jewish Bible

See also: Loans and interest in Judaism

According to Abraham Foxman and Marvin Perry, important passages from the Jewish Bible that pertain to the relationship Jews and money, specifically lending, include:

• Exodus 22:25 - "If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest"

• Leviticus 25:35–37 - "If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you. You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit."

• Deut 23:19–20 - "Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess."

• Proverbs 28:8 - "Whoever increases wealth by taking interest or profit from the poor amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor."

• Psalms 15:5 - "who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken."

These passages generally prohibit Jews from charging interest when lending to Jews (particularly to poor Jews) but do not prohibit charging interest to non-Jews.

Abraham Foxman and Werner Sombart discuss Deut 15:6 ("for the LORD your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you") and analyze how it impacted Jewish culture and antisemitism.

Perry writes that Deut 23:19–20 ("you may charge a foreigner interest, but not a fellow Israelite") played an important role in the history of moneylending in Jewish culture, because it gives permission to Jews to charge interest to non-Jews. Perry claims that Max Weber and Werner Sombart interpreted this verse to mean that the Jewish bible gave permission to treat non-Jews in an unethical manner in the context of financial issues, but Perry rejects their conclusions, writing that they "generalized far too much on the basis of this one out of the 613 commandments."

Double standard

Deut 23:19–20 is a passage from the Jewish Bible that governs the charging interest on loans: "Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess". Because the rule distinguishes between Jews and non-Jews, several commentators have characterized this as a "double standard".

In 1806, in Napoleonic France, the government of France attempted to explore discriminatory policies of Judaism, and asked leading rabbis, assembled in the Grand Sanhedrin, if Judaism permitted excessive interest to be charged to non-Jews. The rabbis replied that Judaism prohibits excessive interest rates to both Jewish and non-Jewish borrowers.

Methods to evade the prohibition against lending to fellow Jews

See also: Loans and interest in Judaism § Exemptions and Evasions

Several biblical verses prohibit a Jew from charging interest to a fellow Jew, and this has led to the creation of variety of mechanisms to evade these prohibitions. One technique is the legal fiction called heter iska (Hebrew, "permission to do business") which entitles a lender to received a fixed percentage of the future profits earned by the borrower on the funds lent, and Maimonides proposed other techniques. Abraham Foxman points out that Islamic law has a similar prohibition which has led to the creation of similar evasions.

The Talmud, under some interpretations, entirely prohibited charging interest to fellow Jews, but Penslar writes that the "Talmudic rabbis of Babylon" attempted to weaken that prohibition so Jews could charge interest to Jews. Penslar also states that Maimonides also undermined that prohibition by sanctioning interest in loans between Jews and non-Jews.

Contrasted with Christianity's views of money

See also: Usury

Several analysts contrast Judaism's view towards money with Christianity's view. Abraham Foxman asserts that the theology of Christianity is more ascetic, whereas Judaism endorses a certain amount of indulgence. For an example, Foxman suggests an elaborate bar mitzvah, which may look "flashy or hypocritical to a Christian onlooker."

Theologian Michael Novak suggests that Jewish thought has a "candid orientation" towards profit, property, and commercial activity, in contrast to Catholic thought which is focused on the afterlife, rather than life in this world.

Christ driving the moneychangers from the temple by Rembrandt

According to Marvin Perry, Christianity - particularly when contrasted with Judaism in the Middle Ages - had an ascetic, anti-commercial viewpoint that was based on the Sermon on the Mount, particularly Matthew 6, in which Jesus condemned the superficiality of materialism and where he "urges his followers to throw over worldly possessions and all considerations of getting and spending, family, position, and status." A related New Testament passage which illustrates Christianity's distaste for money is Matthew 21:12–13, where Jesus entered a temple and found it occupied by moneychangers, and he overthrew the their tables and said "my house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."

Marvin Perry states that Christianity's ascetic views of banking and finance amounted to a "taboo" which had crippling effects on Christian business world. Montesquieu believed that Christianity's views of usury led to backward economies and was responsible for the decline of commerce in the Middle ages. Philosophers Friedrich Hayek and Georg Simmel also believed that Judaism's endorsement of commerce and capitalism was a positive attribute, and more beneficial than asceticism.

Christianity adopted broad prohibitions against charging interest on loans, in contrast to Judaism which generally permitted charging interest on loans.

Regarded as materialistic rather than spiritual

Immanuel Kant

Several leading thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Werner Sombart, and Georg Hegel, compared Judaism with Christianity, and concluded that Judaism was more materialistic, and less moral. These thinkers influenced subsequent interpretation of Judaism's role in the rise of capitalism in Europe in the late nineteenth century.

Immanuel Kant considered Judaism to be "materialistic" and hence oriented towards "goods of the world", contrasted with Christianity which Kant interpreted as purely spiritual.

The most consequential thinker addressing this issue was Karl Marx in his 1843 work On the Jewish Question (sometimes translated into English with the title A World Without Jews). Gerald Krefetz cites a quote from Marx which is representative of Marx's beliefs: "Let us look at the real Jew of our times ... What is the Jew's foundation in our world? Material necessity, private advantage. What is the object of the Jew's worship in this world? Usury. What is his worldly god? Money. Money is the zealous one God of Israel, besides which no other God may stand. The bill of exchange is the Jew's real God".

According to Foxman, Marx asserted that "money was, in effect, the true God of the Jew, the moral center around which his universe revolved."

Marx and Bauer also blame Judaism for imparting to Christianity a "loathsome lust for gain".

Anti-capitalists' views of Judaism

Karl Marx

During the nineteenth century, many leading thinkers began to promote communist and anti-capitalist viewpoints. Because capitalism was closely associated with Jews, anti-capitalists often considered Judaism to be the root of capitalism. Those that embraced capitalism tended to be sympathetic to Jews, and those that rejected capitalism tended to behostile to Jews.

Marx believed that earning a living from collecting interest (or from acting as a middleman) was an unjust and exploitive aspect of capitalism. Because many Jews were employed in such non-productive occupations, Jews were singled out for particular criticism by Marx, and he blamed Judaism for the exploitation and alienation of workers. Moses Mendelssohn argued, to the contrary, that commercial activity was just as valid and beneficial as manual labor, writing "Many a merchant, while quietly engaged at is desk in forming commercial speculations ... produces ... more than the most active and noisy mechanic or tradesman."

Derek Penslar writes that Marx did not argue that Jews merely embraced capitalism, but rather that they "embodied" it. Penslar states that Marx claimed that the Jewish religious culture shared many key characteristics of capitalism, such as materialism and egoism.

Marx concluded that Judaism was responsible for the alienation of many workers, and this idea became a component of Marx's theory of communism. Marx viewed Judaism as a commercial practice, not a theology. According to Perry, Marx believed that "Jews are the embodiment of capitalism (money-system) in action and the creators of all its evil consequences for humanity."

Marx's views were shared by Bruno Bauer, who claimed that the essence of Judaism was egoism and materialism, and Marx claimed that money was the Jew's worldly god.

As supporters of communism

Leon Trotsky

In contrast to the widespread association of Jews and Judaism with capitalism, others have remarked on the significant participation of Jews in the communist movement. Milton Friedman commented that Jews in the twentieth century have been "consistently opposed" to capitalism. Many leaders of Bolshevism in Russia were of Jewish descent, including Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev, Grigori Zinoviev, Moisei Uritsky, and Karl Radek. Between 1917 and 1922, between one sixth and one fifth of the Bolshevik party congress delegates were Jewish.

Moneylending in the Middle Ages

Moneylending was an important occupation for Jews, beginning in the early Middle Ages, and continuing into the modern era. Moneylending was first noted as a significant occupation in the ninth century, and in the tenth century, some Jews were large scale financiers. This prevalence in the field of moneylending has led to scholarly debate which considered the question of why Jews gravitated towards money-related occupations.

Moneylending as an occupation of last resort

See also: Antisemitism in Europe § Restrictions to marginal occupations (tax collecting, moneylending, etc.)

Derek Penslar and Abraham Foxman contend that one reason Jews engaged in the moneylending profession was because Kings, Princes and other European leaders prohibited Jews from practicing many other professions, and moneylending was one of the remaining occupations that were not prohibited. The exclusion of Jews from many trades and craft guilds began following the First Crusade (1096-1099)

The exclusion often came at the urging of clergy and local guild members, state and local governments. Jews were excluded in certain places from certain crafts (excluded by the craft guilds), in certain trades, and - indirectly - agriculture due to bans on land-ownership; these exclusions led Jews of often engage in peddling, second-hand goods, pawnbroking, and moneylending. In Southern Europe, Christian competitors of Jews in several occupations - including the moneylending occupation - asked their country's leaders to expel Jews, in order to reduce competition.

Howard Sachar writes that the occupations that were left for Jews to engage in were often the occupations that Christians disdained, such as peddling, hawking and moneylending, and he estimates that three fourths of Jews in Central and Western Europe were occupied in these occupations in the eighteenth century. Sachar states that "[i]n their [Jews] struggle for livelihood, they generated a sizable underclass of beggars, fencers, pimps, even robbers, thereby creating a self-fulfilling gentile scenario of Jews, one that would endlessly invoked by Jew-haters throughout the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."

Abraham Foxman points out that many Jews in that era were especially well suited for commerce, because the Jewish diaspora caused many Jews to have far-flung networks of friends and family, which facilitated trade. Foxman writes that the moneylending profession gave rise, eventually, to the modern financial industries, including banking. Over time, Jews became very skilled at both commerce and moneylending.

Some European leaders encouraged Jews to engage in moneylending, because it enhanced economic activity and provided personal benefit to the leaders themselves In addition, leaders benefited from Jewish moneylenders by collecting fees and taxes. In spite of that, some European leaders expelled Jews from their countries (England 1290, France 1306 and 1394) depriving themselves of the economic benefits provided by the moneylenders.

The perception of Jews as dishonest and immoral became a self-fulfilling prophecy, because the exclusion from other professions forced them to engage in moneylending and other marginal professions that were regarded as unethical.

Moneylending as a voluntary choice

Although most scholars attribute the large number of Jews in the moneylending occupation to the exclusion from other crafts and trades, Werner Sombart, in his book The Jews and Modern Capitalism, asserts that moneylending was an occupation that many Jews preferred, and voluntarily engaged in. As evidence, Sombart cites the fact that Jews were heavily engaged in moneylending before the era when they were excluded from trades and crafts; and also the fact that the religion and culture of Judaism predisposed Jews to commercial and financial endeavors. Because Sombart speculated on anthropological and racial explanations, his work has been described as antisemitic and racist. However, some modern scholars characterize his presentation of the topic as sympathetic and valid. Sombart's work was a watershed in the scholarship of Jewish culture, because it prompted subsequent historians and economists to begin to examine the relationship between Jews and money.

Sombart contends that many of the trade and craft prohibitions were rarely enforced, and thus Jews could have found employment in many of the proscribed occupations, if they desired. However, Sombart writes that Jews were absolutely excluded from government jobs, and that this exclusion was more significant than the putative trade exclusions. He also suggests that exclusion from government jobs had some incidental benefits for Jews, because it freed them from problems associated with political partisanship.

Christians discouraged from charging interest on loans

See also: Lateran council and usury

One of the reasons that moneylending was open to Jews as a profession was that European Christian culture regarded moneylending as sinful or immoral. This caused Christians to avoid the profession, leaving a vacuum which Jews were free to fill. The Christian abhorrence of moneylending was rooted in the Old Testament laws of Exodus 22:25, Deuteronomy 23:19–20, Leviticus 25:35–37, and Psalms 15:5. These biblical rules were re-emphasized in the Middle Ages in the Lateran councils particularly the Second Lateran Council of 1139 and the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, however these proclamations of the Catholic Church outlawed excessively high interest rates, not interest in general.

Max Dimont asserts that moneylending, of all professions, was the "most reviled". Dimont writes that the Jewish role in moneylending was the most important contribution of Jews to medieval society, since the feudal culture might have failed without a flow of capital.

The occupation of moneylending was considered a "degenerate" profession, in the fourteenth century by many Christians, including Franciscans in England such as John Peckham who engaged in discussions of usury and debt.

One reason that Christians permitted Jews to engage in moneylending, even though it was considered a sinful activity, was because Jews were already considered to be damned, and so they may as well commit the sin of usury, thus saving the souls of Christians that would otherwise be forced to lend money. Dimont compares this transfer of sinful behavior to the Jewish practice of Sabbath Goy, whereby Jews have non-Jews perform prohibited tasks on the sabbath.

Collecting interest considered an act of revenge

Some Christians in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries considered interest paid to Jews to be a form of "Jewish revenge". Derek Penslar suggests that the act of charging interest to non-Jews was encouraged by Jewish leaders as a way of harming non-Jews, and as examples Penslar cites Jewish authority Maimonides who wrote (discussing Deuteronomy 23:20) in his Mishneh Torah: "'We have been commanded to burden the Gentile with interest, and thus to lend to him, not to help him, nor to deal graciously with him, but rather to harm him…". Penslar also writes that notable rabbis in medieval Europe encouraged moneylending to non-Jews as a way of exacting revenge for hostile behavior by non-Jews towards Jews. Essayist Heinrich Heine described an analogous motivation, when he claimed that the Rothschild family's financial triumphs were a vehicle of revenge against non-Jews for centuries of oppression by Christians.

Contemporary Christian views of Jewish moneylending and peddling

Abraham Foxman writes that it is likely that non-Jews in Medieval or Renaissance Europe harbored feelings of fear, vulnerability, and hostility towards Jews, because they resented being beholden to Jewish lenders.

Derek Penslar states that in 1884 Germany Jews were "overrepresented" in the lending profession, based on records for the crime of charging excessive interest rates (usury), which show that 27 Jews were tried for usury, compared to 103 non-Jews, and 12 Jews were convicted of usury, compared to 49 non-Jews.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth century, anecdotal remarks from Christian merchants and traders show that there were negative feelings towards Jewish business people, who were sometimes regarded as liars or cheats. Werner Sombart concluded that the perceptions of cheating or dishonesty were simply a manifestation of Christian frustration at innovative commercial practices of Jews, which were contrary to custom and tradition of the Christian merchants, but were otherwise ethical.

Another complaint of Christian businesspeople were that Jews did not limit themselves to one particular trade or market, but instead Jews often were "jack of all trades" or were "ubiquitous" and "paid no heed to the demarcation of all economic activities into separate categories" Similarly, Marvin Perry asserts that much antisemitism in European commercial world derived from the fact that non-Jewish merchants could not match the "economies of scale and advertising promotions" of Jewish competitors.

When Jews entered trades or business areas in Europe, this frequently resulted in complaints from Christian competitors that the Jews were depriving them of customers and profit. Werner Sombart analyzed the 17th and 18th century Christian views of Jewish merchants, and concluded that they objected to Jewish merchants because the Jew's pursuit of profit was blatant, open, and aggressive, in contrast to the Christian approach which - while willing to seek profit - viewed the aggressive pursuit of profit as unseemly, uncivilized and uncouth. Sombart also asserts another cause of Christian frustration with Jewish businesspeople: Jews imported raw materials, which was considered inappropriate by Christian merchants.

Rise of Capitalism

Court Jews

Main article: Court Jew

Joseph Suss Oppenheimer, who served Karl Alexander, Duke of Württemberg

Court Jews were Jewish bankers or businessmen who lent money and handled the finances of some of the Christian European noble houses, primarily in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Court Jews were precursors to the modern financier or Secretary of the Treasury. Their jobs included raising revenues by tax farming, negotiating loans, master of the mint, creating new sources for revenue, negotiating loans, float ing debentures, devising new taxes. and supplying the military. In addition, the Court Jew acted as personal bankers for nobility: he raised money to cover the noble's personal diplomacy and his extravagances.

Court Jews were skilled administrators and businessmen who received privileges in return for their services. They were most commonly found in Germany, Holland, and Austria, but also in Denmark, England, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Lithuania, Portugal, and Spain. Virtually every duchy, principality, and palatinate in the Holy Roman Empire had a Court Jew.

Nobility tolerated and even encouraged Court Jews, in spite of complaints from non-Jewish merchants, because Jews were perceived as providing beneficial financial services to the leaders and government. Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a Christian advisor to French nobility, encouraged Jewish participation in government financing. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Germany and Austria prohibited Jews from settling in their boundaries, yet virtually every prince and ruler gave some Court Jews the privilege of living within their state. Court Jews often provided banking and lending services, but they did so only with royal permission, support, and protection.

The most notable court Jew was Joseph Suss Oppenheimer, who served Karl Alexander, Duke of Württemberg. Because of the influential role of Court Jews, their power contributed to the image of the Jew as a devious and traitorous conspirator, for instance, in the 1940 film Jud Suss produced in Nazi Germany.

By modernizing the finances and government of the nobility, Court Jews play a critical role in facilitating commerce and building the modern state.

Mortgages and bills-of-exchange

Jews played an important role in the dissemination of financial innovations such as mortgages, paper money, and bills of exchange. Bills of exchange (also called negotiable instruments) first appeared in Europe in the twelfth century in Italy, although the concept originated earlier in China and Islamic trading communities. Werner Sombart speculates that, because Jews played a role as intermediaries in Mediterranean trading, they were uniquely positioned to import Islamic financial techniques into Europe. Sombart also analyzed historical evidence of Jewish participation in the establishment of early important banks in Europe (including the Bank of Amsterdam, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Hamburg) and concluded that Jews played an important role in the creation of important early banking concepts in Europe. Sombart also suggested that Jews played an essential role in the creation of mortgage deeds and "pay to bearer" negotiable instruments.

Derek Penslar writes that Jews recognized their own innovation, and took pride in it, as illustrated in a 1848 article in The Jewish Chronicle which claimed that medieval Jews invented the bill of exchange, and also claimed that Cromwell's readmission of Jews into England in 1657 in was responsible for England's subsequent rise to economic dominance.

Stock exchanges and joint-stock banks

Salo Baron documented the important contributions Jews made to the establishment of stock exchanges in Europe and America, explaining that their involvement in stock exchanges was a natural consequence of their involvement in European banking, and - before that - their occupation in medieval moneylending. Baron gives, as examples, participation of Jews in Holland's stock exchanges in the era 16536-1700, the role of a Jew, Ephraim Hart, in the founding of the New York Stock Exchange in 1792, and the "dominant" role Jews play in German stock exchanges, such as running 159 of 174 member firms of the Berlin stock exchange in 1807.

In 1688, Jewish merchant Joseph de la Vega wrote the first treatise on the stock exchange, entitled Confusion of Confusions.

In addition to stock exchanges, Jews also played important roles in commodities exchanges such as precious metal exchanges and agricultural exchanges, and Marvin Perry documents that 116 of 147 members of such exchanges in Germany in 1933 were Jewish.

Werner Sombart asserts that Jews played a critical role in the evolution of the modern stock exchange, because they were instrumental in the transition of credit from being a personal matter into one of impersonal relationship, and because they created the notion of transferable or negotiable securities. Sombart claims that European stock exchanges originated in the practice of "bill-broking" which Jews dominated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Venice, Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Vienna, Hamburg, and Frankfort.

In addition to participating in the creation and operation of stock exchanges, in the late nineteenth century, many European family-owned Jewish financial firms themselves transitioned from privately held companies to joint stock companies.

Werner Sombart writes that France was an exception, and that Jews did not play a large role in the establishment of French stock exchanges.

The Rothschild family was critical to many innovations related to stock and bond offerings, especially in the era 1808 to 1840. They innovated international, cross-border stock offerings, and instituted the concept of creating a demand for new stock offerings, anticipating the modern Initial Public Offering (IPO). The role of the Rothschilds in financing the Peninsular War in 1807-8 and their role in Austrian bonds in 1820 are examples of their early activities in this field.

Before the Rothschilds, Jewish brothers in England, Abraham and Benjamin Goldsmid, established the first "money market" in Europe, trading loans in London in the period 1792 to 1810.

Merchandising innovations

In Europe, during the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, Jewish merchants played pioneering roles in the creation and deployment of many important merchandising and marketing innovations, including:

• Discount prices
• Competition (vs. cartels)
• Installment payments
• Lower cost materials and production methods
• Cross-industry integration
• Active seeking-out of customers

In the nineteenth century, Jews continued to contribute to innovations in retail sales, in new areas such as:

• Department stores
• Advertising
• Fixed and clearly marked prices
• Illustrated catalogues
• Mail order service

Notable Jewish department store pioneers in Germany included Hermann Tietz, Leonhard Tietz, Georg Wertheim (founder of Wertheim department store), and the Grunfeld family.

Why were Jews so influential in the rise of capitalism?

Scholars have analyzed the reasons why Jews played such important roles in the rise of capitalism in Europe, and in the banking industries of Europe and America. A variety of factors have been postulated, including:

1. Christians often showed an aristocratic disdain for business and industry.
2. Jews, acting as pioneers or risk-takers, entered the gaps in those areas disdained by gentiles.
3. Jews often took advantage of an international network of contacts with fellow Jews, often bolstered by apprenticeships, marriages, hiring and doing business with fellow Jews.
4. During the diaspora, Jews had lived in a money economy and had learned to take cash and credit operations for granted as a normal, natural and familiar, thus they possessed expertise and also capital.
5. Jews were usually more educated and literate than non-Jews.
6. The religion of Judaism, particularly the Talmud, is positively disposed towards economic activity and profit, in contrast to Christianity's doctrines grounded in the asceticism of the New Testament.
7. Jews showed a willingness to ignore custom and tradition, and pursue new ideas such as advertising, aggressively seeking customers, cost-cutting, and engaging in multiple trades.

Culture

A question scholars have speculated upon is whether Jews initiated the rise of capitalism, or if they merely applied their aptitudes and culture to exploit capitalism in a unique and effective way. Philosopher Max Weber was of the latter mindset, and he suggested that the Reformation and Protestantism, not Jews, were the primary causes of the rise of capitalism. Werner Sombart held the opposing view and hypothesized that Jews were primarily responsible for the rise of capitalism. Gerald Krefetz writes that the interrelations between Jews and capitalism are complex and cannot be readily reduced to a simple cause-and-effect, but he concludes that Europe was ready for change, and that Jews did not necessarily initiate capitalism, but that their "special talents" made them well suited to exploit and participate in capitalism. Marvin Perry emphasizes the fact that Western Europe, during the Middle Ages, was backwards compared to China, Byzantium, and the Islamic world. This meant that the Jews - who were in the position to carry financial techniques from the Near East to Europe - were uniquely able to initiate capitalistic endeavors in Western Europe.

Marcus Arkin summarizes the Jewish culture's relationship to capitalism in the following words: "Unlike their Christian neighbors, Jews for many centuries had been earning their living within a monetary framework…. Jewish commercial activities had been concerned not only with the exchange of goods but with cash and credit transactions. Conditioned to think in monetary terms, they formed by the nineteenth century a capitalist enclave within a still predominantly pre-capitalist economy [in Europe]. As possessors of liquid and mobile wealth, they were the ideal partners for impecunious princes - partnerships that often led to the founding of court and state banks. Under the aegis of the Rothschilds ... the mystique of banking offered for those of more modest backgrounds a promising avenue of upward mobility. This developing Jewish banking network operated through a strong element of mutual trust and remained largely self-perpetuating, strengthened further by extensive and sustained contacts with fellow Jewish bankers on an international level."

Jerry Muller writes that Jews had "cultural capital": traits conducive to success in the commercial world, such as a stock of practical knowledge about how markets work, profit and loss, risk-taking, a propensity for discovering and exploiting new markets.

Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel, in 1655, asked England to readmit Jews, and argued that "[m]erchandising is, as it were, the proper profession of the Nation of the Jews" and that God had given commercial talent to Jews in order to make them indispensable. Before that, in 1638, rabbi Simone Luzzatto argued against the expulsion of Jews from Venice, and wrote that Jews were well suited to act as Venice's commercial agents, because they possessed trading skills honed over centuries by their exclusion from other sources of livelihood.

Marvin Perry compared two competing electrification firms in Germany in late 1800s: Siemens (managed by non-Jews) and AEG (under the Jewish ownership of Emil Rathenau) which were both operated in a similar manner, with nearly identical success, and - based on that comparison - Perry concludes responsiveness to market conditions was more significant than cultural background of the owners.

Derek Penslar analyzed the writings of German rabbi Ludwig Philippson, who - in 1861 - viewed Jews as "a primarily commercial people, [who] were ideally suited to catch the wave [of commercialism]". Penslar describes Philippson's attitude as representative of a transformation of Jewish outlook from passive introspection to an "aggressive, triumphalist spirit ".

Werner Sombart

Werner Sombart enumerates several cultural characteristics that contributed to the Jews role in capitalism, including their dedication to learning and academics, their background in moneylending, their religion which supported commerce and profit, the fact that they were excluded from government occupations (which made them focus on commercial endeavors instead), and their mobility which made them more comfortable with cash and negotiable instruments.

Sombart suggests that there was a genuine and sharp contrast between Jewish and Christian merchants, that Jews embodied a distinctive value system which was not afraid to change, even rapidly change, the existing order. While both Jewish and Christian merchants respected the same moral rules about theft and crime, Sombart concludes that Jewish merchants were more willing to push the boundaries and violate commercial customs that Christians were not willing to disturb.

Marvin Perry analogizes the Jewish experience in European financial affairs with that of Chinese in Southeast Asia, and the Armenians in the Ottomon Empire. In each of these cases, the minority fulfilled important, even dominant, roles in business and finance, which in turn engendered resentment from the local majority, who considered the financially savvy minority to be "aggressive and materialistic" middlemen who displaced locals by way of conspiratorial plotting.

Jerry Muller points out that liberals are sometimes "affronted" by the outstanding economic success of Jews, because it contradicts the assumption that equal opportunity should result in equal wealth; instead, the Jewish experience seems to indicate that culture, family, and community are more significant than civil rights, affirmative action, and mere opportunity.

Religion

Werner Sombart analyzed to what extent the Jewish religion contributed to Jewish involvement in the rise of capitalism. Sombart speculated that Judaism contained doctrines and attitudes that were more supportive of commerce and profit than Christianity's doctrines were: whereas Christianity was the religion of poverty, Judaism was the religion free enterprise. Sombart's primary - and controversial - conclusion, was expressed in his proclamation: "I think the Jewish religion has the same leading ideas as capitalism. I see the same spirit in the one as the other". Sombart reached this conclusion based on his analysis of the Talmud, the Jewish bible, and other Jewish religious texts.

Sombart considered the possibility that - in actual practice - Christians disregarded their religion's inclination towards poverty, and pursued commerce with as much vigor as adherents of Judaism, but he concluded that Jews were more candid and naive about the acceptability and virtue of commerce, wealth, and profit. Others have rejected Sombart's thesis that the "spirit" of Judaism was responsible for the rise of capitalism, while still acknowledging that Judaism endorses enjoyment of of material life more so than does Christianity.

International Jewish alliances

An important aspect of Jewish culture which was a factor in the rise of capitalism was the fact that Jewish communities were widely dispersed across Europe and the Mediterranean, and the communities kept in touch via inter-marriage, networking, sharing of wealth, and transfer of ideas. Max Dimont writes that "A far-flung Jewish commercial network was already in existence by the tenth century" which integrated Europe, North Africa, the Near East, and trading posts in India and China. Historian W. E. H. Lecky maintained that - for centuries - Jews were the most important force in keeping international trade moving, because of their "organized systems of monetary exchange". From 1500 to 1789, Jews expelled from Spain (the Marranos) were responsible for a "far-flung network" of commerce that was centered in the Netherlands. Jerry Muller uses the phrase "diasporic merchant minority" to describe Jews and summarize why they were responsible for the rise of capitalism, emphasising the Jews' transnational trading networks.

Banking

Modern banking arose in Europe during the 19th century. Before the age of modern banking, most bankers were private bankers, affiliated with nobility, and lending exclusively to nobility and governments. But in the nineteenth century, spurred at first by financing required for the the Napoleonic wars and then by the explosion of railroads in Europe, banks evolved into large commercial entities, lending to the public, and often publicly traded.

Most European banks were founded by Jews or protestants. Jews were founders and leaders of many of the important early European Banks, as well as significant banks in the United States. The prevalence of Jews in European banking continued from the early 19th century to World War I. Jews played leading roles in banking, financing wars, financing the railroad industry, and the establishment of stock exchanges.

Especially in Germany and Austria, Jewish bankers were dominant in the country's economic development. Marvin Perry writes: "[in the period 1850 to 1910] German Jewish economic elite contributed decisively to the country's economic development, its financial institutions, its industrialization, and its entry into the world market as a great economic power by 1890. That elite also played a significant role in underwriting the costs of Germany's wars of unification (1864-1871)." In 1860 there were 106 Jewish banks and 51 non-Jewish banks in Berlin, while Jews comprised only 1% of the German population.

England also had a significant Jewish participation in its banking industry: in 1904, out of the 63 banks in England in 1904, 33 were Jewish firms.

Prevalence of Jews in German financial industry

Jewish bankers, particularly the Rothschilds helped the governments of Germany finance the Napoleonic wars. They continued that role during the German wars of unification of 1864, 1866, and 1870. In addition, Jews were army contractors, and had a near monopoly in army contracting.

Otto von Bismarck, leader of Germany in the 19th century desired a personal banker who was Jewish, because Bismarck regarded Jews as "perspicacious and honest". Bismarck employed Gerson Bleichroder as his personal banker, upon the recommendation of the Rothschilds. Bismarck and Emperor Wilhelm II relied on the council of Jewish advisors, such as Henri James Simon, Albert Ballin, Carl Fürstenberg, Emil Rathenau , and Walther Rathenau, and Gerson Bleichroder, who were called Kaiserjuden (German for "Emperor's Jews"). From the late 1800s until World War I, Jewish bankers and financiers were welcomed at court and honored in various ways.

According to Marvin Perry, in Prussia in 1908, "there were 162 Jews among 747 millionaires … of the 25 wealthiest Germans 44 percent were Jews; of the 100 wealthiest 29 percent; ... Walter Rathenau, son of a famous Jewish entrepreneur .., asserted that 300 men, all of whom knew each other, controlled Europe's' economic destinies; the historian Werner Mosse estimates that 125 [of the 300] were German, and of those, 40 to 50 were Jews or of Jewish descent."

According to Howard Sachar, in 1882, Jews comprised 43 percent of the proprietors or directors of Germany's ten largest banks, and in Vienna the proportion was estimated at 80 percent. In the Bohemian Crown lands and in the Hapsburg city of Trieste, banking was "almost exclusively a Jewish vocation".

Notable banks and bankers

Salo Baron documented many important Jewish bankers and banks, including the following: Aaron of York and Aaron of Lincoln in thirteenth century England, Credit Mobilier (France) founded by the Péreire brothers, Rothschild family, Deutsche Bank (1870), Dresdner Bank, London & Westminster Bank (1832) founded by David Salomons, Stern Brothers bank (1853), Emile Erlanger and Company (1859), Speyer Brothers, Seligman brothers, Carl Meyer, and the Goeteborgs Bank in Sweden (1848). Gerson von Bleichröder was an important banker in Berlin.

Banking families

Important Jewish banking families included the Rothschilds, the Foulds, the Goldschmidts, the Warburgs, the Oppenheims from Cologne, the Speyers from Frankfort, the Bleichroders, the Hirsches, and the Sterns.

In France, important families were the Lazard brothers (founders of Lazard banking firm) and the Péreire brothers (founders of the Crédit Mobilier bank). The elite banking firms in France in the late nineteenth century were called the Haute Banque Parisienne.

In England, Carl Joachim Hambro founded Hambros Bank; in India Sassoon J. David founded the Bank of India; and in Russia, Joseph Günzburg founded the Günzburg bank in St. Petersburg.

Of all the banking families, the Rothschilds were far and away the wealthiest and most influential.

Intermarriages and alliances

Jewish banking families often inter-married, and this strengthened the relationships between the banks. According to Salo Baron, "[n]ot only was it common for the children and relatives of a given firm to marry each other, but marital alliances frequently occurred as well among different Jewish banking families, as was the case with the Loebs, the Kuhns, the Schiffs, and the Warburgs." Jewish bankers in the United States also created "chain of interlocking associations and directorates" amongst themselves, and with European banks, in order to magnify their power to raise capital to compete with larger firms.

Wars, armies, and railroads

Jewish banking firms often preferred to lend to governments, in particular, for financing armies and wars. Jewish firms were the preeminent underwriters of government bond offerings. According to Howard Sachar: "As in the early modern era of the Hofjuden (German, "Court Jews"), Jewish financiers [in the 19th century] preferred to negotiate less with private businessmen than with government officials, those with the likeliest access to tax income for repayment. The tradition lingered well into the nineteenth century. Like their predecessors, the Rothschilds and other Jewish bankers continued to deal principally with representatives of the highest state authority.... in the German-speaking world of the 1930s and 1940s, the so-called Frankfurt Tradition, that is, the mutually profitably relationship between Jewish bankers and prominent government officials, extended through manifold echelons…"

In addition, Jewish firms often acted as army contractors, managing the purchasing of supplies for armies, particularly in England, France, Spain, Germany, and Austria. The most notable was Samuel Oppenheimer.

Another industry that Jewish financiers were heavily involved in was railroads, which were monumental enterprises that involved a tremendous amount of lending, capital raising, and risk-taking. Important financiers involved in the European railroad industries were the Rothschilds and the Pereire brothers. In the United States, Jacob Schiff was a prominent railroad financier. Howard Sachar writes: "as industrial expansion gained momentum throughout the nineteenth century, [Jewish] dynasties such as the Rothschilds, Bleichroders, and Hirsches began to exert a growing influence on the development of technology, and specifically of Europe's first railroads. [The Rothschilds financed many European railroads in mid 19th century].... [The 1870s railroad] project [connecting Europe to Turkey] made Maurice de Hirsch one of the richest men in the world…"

United States and Wall Street

An early Jewish banker in the United States was Asser Levy who lived in colonial New York during the second half of the 17th century. In the 1700s, Jewish bankers included Haym Solomon of Revolutionary war era, and Isaac Moses who with Alexander Hamilton founded the Bank of New York in 1784. The most prominent Jewish banker of the eighteenth century was Robert Morris, the key financier of the American Revolution.

Several Jewish bankers played key roles in providing government financing for both side of the Civil war: Speyer and Seligman family, for the Union, and Emile Erlanger and Company for the confederacy.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, many German Jews emigrated to the United States and founded banking firms, including the Seligman family which operated in New York, St. Louis, and Philadelphia. Several major banks were started following the mid 1800s by Jews, including Goldman Sachs (founded by Samuel Sachs and Marcus Goldman), Kuhn Loeb (Solomon Loeb and Jacob H. Schiff), Lehman Brothers (Henry Lehman), Salomon Brothers, and Bache & Co. (founded by Jules Bache).

Most prominent Jewish banks in the United States were investment banks, rather than commercial banks. Investment banks deal in commodities and foreign exchange, and assist governments and large corporations raise capital and sell securities, whereas commercial banks lend money to individuals and manage checking and savings accounts.

Investment banking, brokerages and commodities were some of the fields in which many Jews became wealthy in the United States in the nineteenth century.

Jacob Schiff

Jacob Schiff

Jacob Schiff was perhaps the most influential Jewish banker in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. He was president of Kuhn Loeb and financed railroads such as the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and he took part in the reorganization of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1896-99, and at various times aided the Westinghouse Electric Company, and the Western Union Telegraph Company.

During the Russo-Japanese War, in 1904 and 1905, in perhaps his most famous financial action, Schiff, again through Kuhn, Loeb & Co., extended a critical series of loans to the Empire of Japan, in the amount of $200 million. He was willing to extend this loan due, in part, to his belief that gold is not as important as national effort and desire, in helping win a war, and due to the apparent underdog status of Japan at the time; no European nation had yet been defeated by a non-European nation in a modern, full-scale war. It is quite likely Schiff also saw this loan as a means of avenging, on behalf of the Jewish people, the anti-Semitic actions of the Tsarist regime, specifically the then-recent pogroms in Kishinev. This loan attracted worldwide attention, and had major consequences. Japan won the war, thanks in large part to the purchase of munitions made possible by Schiff's loan. Some within the Japanese leadership took this as evidence of the power of Jews all around the world, of their loyalty to one another, and as proof of the truth of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Schiff was offended by contemporary non-Jews such as Charles W. Eliot (president of Harvard university) who suggesting that the Jewish bankers wielded an "international and interlocking Jewish money power". Schiff took steps to combat these viewpoints in the business world, and attempted to educate Eliot and others who shared those viewpoints.

Federal Reserve Bank

Paul Warburg

Paul Warburg was a member of an important family of Jewish bankers, including brothers Felix Warburg and Max Warburg, who directed banks in Germany. Paul moved from Germany to the United States in 1902, as a partner of Kuhn, Loeb & Company, which was managed by Jacob Schiff. Warburg pushed the United States to establish the Federal Reserve System. In November 1907 Warburg published a paper entitled "The Discount System in Europe" in The New York Times Annual Financial Review. The paper summarized a proposal for a central bank that would lend money to privately owned commercial banks. Senator Nelson Aldrich embraced the concept and worked with Walburg to propose it to Congress and President Woodrow Wilson. It was enacted into law in 1913. Wilson appointed Warburg to serve as a member of the first Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve system, and he retired from Kuhn, Loeb & Company and served on the Federal Reserve Board from 1914 to 1918.

Prosperity in modern United States

During the twentieth century, Jews in America joined the middle class, and towards the end of the century, became relatively wealthy. In 1983, economist Thomas Sowell of Stanford University wrote "Jewish family incomes are the highest of any large ethnic group in the US - 72% above the national average." Sowell points out that Episcopalians have also experienced similar prosperity - as a group - as Jews, but it is the "social and economic distance covered in a relatively short time" that makes the Jewish experience in America unique.

Gerald Krefetz discusses the prosperity that Jews earned in the United States following their emigration from Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and he attributes their success to their familiarity with "trading and exchanging, commerce, city living, property rights, ... and accumulation of funds for future investment ... "

Historian Edward Shapiro cites a Forbes magazine survey from the 1980s, which showed that, of the 400 richest Americans, over 100 were Jewish, which was nine times greater than would be expected based on the overall population. Shapiro also estimates that over 30% of American billionaires are Jewish, and he cites a 1986 issue of Financial World that listed the top 100 money makers in 1985, and "half the people mentioned" were Jewish, including George Soros, Asher Edelman, Michael Milkin, and Ivan Boesky.

Gerald Krefetz writes "[w]hether it is called intestinal fortitude, operation bootstrap, moxie, social striving ,or upward mobility, American Jews have fought mightily for financial security... As a group Jews have attained a higher standard of living and earn more money than any other religious group in the United States... Jews are the richest of the rich"

Philanthropy

Julius Rosenwald

Philanthropy is an important part of Jewish culture, and many prominent Jews have made large donations to charitable causes. Derek Penslar speculates that the philanthropic tradition in the Jewish community originated in the early nineteenth century because the Jewish middle class were embarrassed by poor Jews, and were worried that the Jewish peddlers and vagrants would endanger the recent gains in status - so Jewish activists prohibited begging and supported aid for the poor. Jewish community leaders provided funds to train Jewish youths in farming and handicrafts.

Retail magnate Julius Rosenwald donated a large amount of money to support the education of African-Americans. Jacob Schiff provided funds to help new Jewish from Russia and Europe settle in the United States. Marvin Perry quotes Jewish banker Otto Kahn as justifying his philanthropy by saying "I must atone for my wealth". Jerry Muller suggests that the Jewish inclination for philanthropy is partially due to a desire to offset resentment that may be felt by those not as wealthy.

The most generous Jewish donors are the Rothschilds who have given to many Jewish causes, such as a new Jewish hospital in Paris in 1852, and a hospital in Vienna in 1872. In the 1860s and 1870s Zionists asked the Rothschilds to buy the land of Palestine for the Jews. James A. de Rothschild paid for construction of the Israeli Knesset building as a gift to the State of Israel and the Supreme Court of Israel building was donated to Israel by Dorothy de Rothschild. The Rothschilds also donated to non-Jewish causes, such as an observatory for Vienna observatory.

Financial scandals

Jews have been implicated in prominent financial scandals, including Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin A. Siegel, Dennis Levine, and Bernie Madoff. Books that have covered the scandals include the non-fiction works Den of Thieves by James B. Stewart and The Predators' Ball by Connie Bruck. Den of Thieves includes a description of tensions on Wall Street between Jewish and non-Jewish financiers. Alan Dershowitz accused the author of Den of Thieves of being antisemitic due to the focus on Jewishness in the book. Foxman is critical of the book's title because it originates in Matthew 21:12–15, which depicts a scene where Jesus expels Jewish moneylenders from a temple.

Michael Milken

Alan Dershowitz and rabbi Alexander Schindler have commented on the scandals, and discussed the fact that some of the Jews implicated were prominent donors to Jewish charities. Both Dershowitz and Schindler suggest that Jewish charities should be more diligent about investigating the source of donated monies. Dershowitz gives the example of the Jewish Theological Seminary, which removed donor Ivan Boesky's name from its library building after Boesky was convicted of financial crimes. Rabbi Alexander Schindler said "[w]e have become materialists, and we tend to honor people for their money, rather than for their services to the community".

Journalist J. J. Goldberg stated that the Jewishness of Bernie Madoff was significant for several reasons: Madoff operated through a series of Jewish associations, Madoff's "communal involvement" was part of his ponzi scheme, the long association of Wall Street and finance, and because of antisemitism associated with money. Goldberg also cites a wave of Pell Grant fraud cases in 1993 perpetrated by yeshivas, and uses that an an illustration of declining moral enforcement by rabbis.

Gerald Krefetz comments that Jews are particularly prone to push the boundaries of morality in law in the realm of international banking.

In 1986, leaders of the American Jewish Committee discussed the publicity associated with Boesky's scandal (which was in the headlines at the same time as Israel's involvement in the Iran-Contra affair) and they expressed concern that the Boesky scandal may contribute to antisemitic stereotypes that Jews are "devious, preoccupied with profit, and insensitive to morality". Abraham Foxman described a similar issue that arose after the Madoff investment scandal, when a large number of comments were posted on Internet blogs which attributed Madoff's criminal behavior to his Jewishness.

Dershowitz and Foxman have accused the media and government officials of emphasizing the Jewishness of white-collar criminals, but remaining silent about religion when the criminal is not Jewish.

In literature

Jews have been portrayed as miserly and greedy in both belles-lettres and popular literature.

Shylock

The character Shylock in William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice is a Jewish moneylender who is portrayed in unscrupulous and avaricious. Derek Penslar asserts that Shylock is a metaphor for the Jewish "otherness" and that he represents the "inseparability of Jewish religious, social, and economic distinctiveness". Gerald Krefetz calls Shylock a "classic image" which has haunted Jews ever since it first appeared, since it made Jews a scapegoat.

Historian Richard Hofstadter writes that Shylock was used as the basis for "crankery" by Charles Coughlin and Ezra Pound.

John Gross states that Shylock represented "the sinister international financier" on both sides of the Atlantic.

Abraham Foxman contends that Shylock may have contributed to antisemitism in Japan, because The Merchant of Venice is translated into Japanese more than any other play of Shakespeare.

Fagin

The character Fagin in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist is depicted as avaricious and has served to support antisemitic stereotypes. Dickens claims he held Jews in high regard, and that the depiction of Fagin was simply a caricature that was based upon actual persons, and - in an apparent demonstration of remorse - Dickens removed many occurances of the word "Jew" from later editions of the work.

Ezra Pound

Poet Ezra Pound mentions Jewish attitudes towards money in his poem The Cantos, which has as primary themes economics and governance. In the poem, Jews are implicated in sinister manipulations of the money supply. Abraham Foxman asserts that The Cantoss include a "vicious diatribe against interest-paying finance" and that those sections include antisemitic passages. In Canto 52, Pound wrote "Stinkschuld's [Rothschilds] sin drawing vengeance, poor yitts paying for / Stinkschuld [Rothschilds] / paying for a few big jews' vendetta on goyim", but the name Rothschilds was replaced by "Stinkschulds" at the insistence of Pound's publisher.

Cultural attitudes

Derek Penslar writes that Jewish journalists of the nineteenth century in Europe represented Jewish civilization as producing a "capitalistic sensibility", in contrast to Christianity which did not.

Gerald Krefetz writes that money "was and is a central element in the Jewish experience" because, among other reasons, money has often served to protect Jews against persecution. Jews feel ambivalent towards money because on the one hand it is a powerful force, but on the other non-Jews have sometimes blamed financial problems on Jews.

Wealth as protection against persecution

Krefetz states that many Jews, particularly Americans, treat money very seriously because it has "stood between life and death", that is, throughout history there are many times when Jews would have been expelled or oppressed if not for their financial usefulness. Krefetz concludes that, for that reason, Jews - although they do not worship money - have often considered money to be "essential" to their material being, as essential as God is to their spiritual being. This attitude, engendered over many centuries, has produced the viewpoint that money is a critical to their survival and thus the "manipulation, earning, creation, and saving of money has been raised to a fine art… which is passed from generation to generation."

Public discussion of money

Reticence to publicly discuss money

Gerald Krefetz suggests that Jews are "proud and secretive" about their wealth, and are reluctant to discuss their wealth publicly, because they are afraid that it may promote antisemitism, and he suggests that some non-Jews are afraid of discussing the wealth of Jews because it may lead to accusations of antisemitic attitudes.

J. J. Goldberg writes that many Jews are reluctant to discuss potential associations of Judaism with financial scandals, because "we hold Judaism so dear, we don't want to think it's capable of creating problems" and, as a result, Jews sometimes refuse to acknowledge such associations even when they do exist.

Historian Marvin Perry writes that following the Depression of 1873–79, many Jews were blamed for causing the economic problems, due to their alleged "clannishness" and "control" of the economy. As a result, particularly in Europe, many Jews changed their names and attempted to hide their Jewishness, and "the degree of Jewish participation in the business world was hidden by a vast array of straw men and by concerted efforts to avoid every appearance of Jewish control." Even after these changes, Jewish participation in the Germany and Austrian economies remained significant: the first decade of the 1910s in Vienna, 71 percent of the city's financiers were Jews, 63 percent of its industrialists, 65 percent of its lawyers, 59 percent of its physicians, and over half of its editors and journalists.

Jerry Muller writes that even in modern times, Jews "regard public discussion of Jews and capitalism as intrinsically impolitic, as if conspiratorial fantasies about Jews and money can be elimianted by prudent silence" and that Jews tend to downplay their economic success, except in conversations with other Jews.

Lack of attention by Jewish scholars

Jewish historian Bernard Dov Weinryb, writing in 1938, believed that Jewish scholars neglected the study of economic themes of Jewish history, and felt that Jewish scholarship was too "romantic" and "apologetic" in its goals.

Scholar Max Dimont asserts Jewish scholars have ignored or disregarded Werner Sombarts's thesis (in Sombart's 1911 bookThe Jews and Modern Capitalism) that Jews were responsible for the rise of capitalism, because the scholars are concerned that such study may fuel accusations that modern Jews are "predatory capitalists". Dimont writes that it is plausible that, indeed, Jews did originate capitalism, and that Jewish scholars should examine the topic more neutrally, but that it is too early to draw a definitive conclusion on the matter.

Historian Edward Shapiro asserts that "Jews were reluctant to advertise their financial success because of fear of bolstering anti-Semitic accusations of vast Jewish wealth and economic power." As an illustration, Shapiro claims that Jewish historians deliberately underemphasized the accomplishments of successful Jewish businesspeople (such as "the founders of Inland Steel, Federated Department Stores, Consolidated Foods, and Hyatt Hotels... and David Sarnoff.. who established RCA") and instead chose to focus on Jews where were not invovled in business, such as playwright Mordecai Noah and activist Emma Goldman.

Conspicuous consumption

J. J. Goldberg asserts that some twentieth century Jews wished to engage in "conspicuous consumption" as a way of demonstrating their progress from the poverty of their forefathers in Europe. Gerald Krefetz and Erica Brown both discuss the concern within the Jewish community over ostentatious display of wealth by other Jews which Brown describes with the Yiddish term shanda far de goyim ("shame in front of non-Jews") and she cites as an example the Anti Defamation League which - in the 1930s - advised Jews in Miami against wearing furs in public in the summer.

Pride in achivements

Economic success has long been a source of pride for Jews: in the late nineteenth century, Jewish writers drew a positive link between Jews, trade, and economic freedom, and speculated proudly on the sources of Jewish economic success, and the editors of leading German-Jewish newspapers stressed the contribution of Jews to economic development through their commercial acumen. Penslar notes that in France, in 1820-1860,there was a strong feeling of "triumphalism" within the Jewish community, celebrating their rise in influence and prosperity within European circles.

Wealth should be enjoyed

Jewish author Steven Bayme writes that Jews have eschewed poverty, and have a positive view of wealth, provided it is a "means rather than an end". Abraham Foxman contrasts the asceticism of Christianity with the exuberance of Judaism, and concludes that Jewish culture has a belief in "enjoying life to the fullest" which is sometimes manifested in apparently materialistic attitudes. Derek Penslar states that one of the principles enunciated in the Talmud is that "wealth ... should be enjoyed"

Occupations

Prior to approximately 1820 in Europe, most Jews were peddlers and shopkeepers, but following the Jewish emancipation in the nineteenth century, Jews were able to migrate to middle- and upper-class and engage in a wider variety of occupations. In 1859 in the Austro-Hungarian empire, guilds were abolished and that opportunity enabled Jews to enter "liberal professions" such as law, journalism, and medicine. In Vienna in the period 1870 to 1910, 30% of the students in Vienna's elite schools were Jewish, when Jews represented only about 8% of the city's population. In the first decade of the 1900s in Vienna, 71 percent of the city's financiers were Jews, 63 percent of its industrialists, 65 percent of its lawyers, 59 percent of its physicians, and over half of its editors and journalists.

Gerald Krefetz writes that the livelihood of Jews, particularly their business activities, are influenced by religious, cultural, social, and historical factors. These factors have led to a predisposition for occupations marked by independence, professionalism, and scholarship. Jews have tended to show an "entrepreneurial spirit" and "capacity for risk-taking" that has led then to innovate financial concepts like negotiable instruments of credit, international syndicates, department stores, holding companies, and investment banks.

Within the field of banking, Jews were attracted to investment banking, but not retail banking, because retail banking had relatively low salaries, little opportunity for promotion, and did not encourage creative ambition. Gerald Krefetz suggests that Jews have frequently chosen professions that are "portable" or involve duties as a middle-man, because of their long historical background which was based on trading and "heightened awareness of continual persecution."

Before twentieth century

Salo Wittmayer Baron and Arcadius Kahan list the following vocations commonly occupied by Jews, through the nineteenth century:

• agriculture & livestock
• construction
• crafts
• diamonds
• dyeing
• goldsmithing
• leather
• metals & mining
• petroleum and oil
• railroads
• ships & sailing
• Sugar
• tailoring
• textiles
• tobacco
• wine & liquor
• banking
• brokers
• department stores
• moneylending
• secondhand goods
• slave trade
• spice trade
• stock exchanges

Twentieth century

In 1936, Fortune magazine surveyed Jewish occupations in the United States and found that Jews were heavily represented in department stores, clothing, Hollywood, and the fur trade. Jews were moderately prevalent in furniture manufacturing, alcohol distilleries (half of the distilleries in the United States), and meat packing (10%). Jews were not involved significantly in coal, rubber, chemicals, shipping, bus transportation, aviation, utilities, lumber, or steel.

Paul Krugman, Nobel prize winner for Economics

Gerald Krefetz notes that Jews have always been prevalent in the field of economics, including notables such as David Ricardo and Karl Marx, and Jews account for over a third of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in economics are Jewish, yet they account for only 1/3 of 1% of the world's population. In the United States in 1982, over 15% of all business school students were Jewish. Krefetz suggest that professions favored by Jews in twentieth century United States are medicine, law, investment banking, and movie/television production.

Economist Thomas Sowell recorded statistics illustrating Jewish involvement in some professions in the United States in the twentieth century: in 1953 one in six Jews completed college, compared to one in 20 Americans; in 1938 Jews accounted for 25% of New York City residents but accounted for 64% of Dentists, 55% of doctors, and 65% of lawyers; in 1980 in the United States, 20% of lawyers were Jews (compared with 2.5% of entire population); in 1980 in New York City, 60% of lawyers were Jews; in 1980 "roughly half" of all articles in American medical journals were written by Jews; Jews were heavily represented in the fields of psychology and psychiatry, and Sowell estimates that 30% of all psychiatrists are Jews.

Antisemitism

See also: Zionist Occupation Government and Allegations of Jewish control of the media

A significant amount of antisemitism is based on the relationship between Jews and money. Derek Penslar writes that there are two components to the financial canards:

a) Jews are savages that "are temperamentally incapable of performing honest labor"

b) Jews are "leaders of a financial cabal seeking world domination"

Penslar points out that Native Americans in North America were subject to similar bigotry found in the canard "Jews are savages that are temperamentally incapable of performing honest labor".

Abraham Foxman describes six facets of the financial canards:

1. All Jews are wealthy
2. Jews are stingy and greedy
3. Powerful Jews control business world
4. Jewish religion emphasizes profit and materialism
5. It is okay for Jews to cheat non-Jews
6. Jews use their power to benefit "their own kind"

Leon Poliakov writes that economic antisemitism is not a distinct form of antisemitism, but merely a manifestation of theologic antisemitism (because, without the theological causes of the economic antisemitism, there would be no economic antisemitism). But Derek Penslar contends that in the modern era, the economic antisemitism is "distinct and nearly constant" but theological antisemitism is "often subdued".

Howard Sachar writes that throughout much of the nineteenth century, popular literature and theatrical performances in the Austrian and German empires were merciless in their caricatures of the Rothschilds as "Jewish cash bags" or "Jews behind the throne". These caricatures evolved from mere political satire to more overt antisemitism at the start of the twentieth century. Sachar notes that there is irony in the fact that Jewish proponents of communism, such as Karl Marx were partially responsible for antisemitism targeting the relationship between Jews and capitalism.

Gerald Krefetz summarizes the myth as "[Jews] control the banks, the money supply, the economy, and businesses - of the community, of the country, of the world". Krefetz gives, as illustrations, many slurs and proverbs (in several different languages) which suggest that Jews are stingy, or greedy, or miserly, or aggressive bargainers. Krefetz suggests that during the nineteenth century, most of the myths focused on Jews being "scurrilous, stupid, and tight-fisted", but following the Jewish Emancipation and the rise of Jews to the middle- or upper-class in Europe the myths evolved and began to assert that Jews were "clever, devious, and manipulative financiers out to dominate [world finances]".

Another aspect of the finance-related antisemitic myths is that Jews act do not produce anything of value, but instead tend to serve as middlemen, acting as "parasites in the production line" of non-Jews that are doing the real work. Krefetz lists middlemen occupations subject to this canard as distributors, shoppers, wholesalers, brokers, financiers, and retailers and writes that they are "all notably Jewish occupations".

Gerald Krefetz writes that, as Jews have become more prosperous, they have become more adept at detecting antisemitism, and that they sometimes perceive antisemitism in "any criticism of Israel" and in any "negative observations about Jews and money."

Motivations

Abraham Foxman claims that money-based antisemitism is a result of resentment and jealousy of Jews. Gerald Krefetz makes a similar point: that the ability of Jews to make money occasionally stirs jealousy and hate in non-Jews, contributing to a fear that Jews will "ascend too high" in the economic sphere and begin to manipulate and control world finances.

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote "I am persuaded that in Russia, Austria, and Germany nine-tenths of the hostility to the Jew comes from the average Christian's inability to compete success fully with the average Jew in business in either straight business or the questionable sort."

Increase in times of economic hardship

Several commentators note that money-based antisemitism increases in times of recession or economic hardship, for instance during the Depression of 1873.

Modern European attitudes

The Anti Defamation League conducted a poll in Europe in 2007 which asked respondents if they agreed with the statement that "Jews have too much power in international financial markets". Polling data showed that respondents agreed with that statement as follows: 61% in Hungary, 43% in Austria, 40% in Switzerland, 40% in Belgium, 21% in the United Kingdom, and 13% in the Netherlands.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Protocols of the Elders of Zion

The The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fraudulent antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan to achieve global domination. The Protocols purports to document the minutes of a late nineteenth century meeting attended by world Jewish leaders, the "Elders of Zion", who are conspiring to take over the world. The Protocols includes plans to subvert the morals of the non-Jewish world, plans for Jewish bankers to control the world's economies, plans for Jewish control of the press, and - ultimately - plans for the destruction of civilization. The document consists of twenty-four "protocols", which have been analyzed by Steven Jacobs and Mark Weitzman, and they documented several protocols that suggested that Jews would employ control of the worlds banking system to dominate the world. Of the 24 protocols, the ones that focus on economic issues are 2, 3, 4, 21, and 22.

Henry Ford and the Dearborn Independent

Dearborn Independent

Henry Ford was a pacifist who opposed World War I, and he believed that Jews were responsible for starting wars in order to profit from them: "International financiers are behind all war. They are what is called the international Jew: German Jews, French Jews, English Jews, American Jews. I believe that in all those countries except our own the Jewish financier is supreme . . . here the Jew is a threat". Ford also shared Marx's view that Jews were responsible for capitalism, and in their their role as financiers, they did not contribute anything of value to society.

In 1915, during World War I, Ford blamed Jews for instigating the war, saying "I know who caused the war: German-Jewish bankers." Later, in 1925, Ford said "What I oppose most is the international Jewish money power that is met in every war. That is what I oppose - a power that has no country and that can order the young men of all countries out to death'". According to author Steven Watts, Ford's antisemitism was partially due to a noble desire for world peace.

Ford became aware of the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and believed it to be a legitimate document, and he published portions of it in his newspaper, the Dearborn Independent. Also, in 1920-21 the Dearborn Independent carried a series of articles expanding on the themes of financial control by Jews, entitled:

1. Jewish Idea in American Monetary Affairs: The remarkable story of Paul Warburg, who began work on the United States monetary system after three weeks residence in this country
2. Jewish Idea Molded Federal Reserve System: What Baruch was in War Material, Paul Warburg was in War Finances; Some Curious revelations of money and politics.
3. Jewish Idea of a Central Bank for America: The evolution of Paul M. Warburg's idea of Federal Reserve System without government management.
4. How Jewish International Finance Functions: The Warburg family and firm divided the world between them and did amazing things which non-Jews could not do
5. Jewish Power and America's Money Famine: The Warburg Federal Reserve sucks money to New York, leaving productive sections of the country in disastrous need.
6. The Economic Plan of International Jews: An outline of the Protocolists' monetary policy, with notes on the parallel found in Jewish financial practice.

One of the articles, "Jewish Power and America's Money Famine", asserted that the power exercised by Jews over the nation's supply of money was insidious by helping deprive farmers and others outside the banking coterie of money when they needed it most. The article asked the question: "Where is the American gold supply? ... It may be in the United States but it does not belong to the United States" and it drew the conclusion that Jews controlled the gold supply and, hence, American money.

Another of the articles, "Jewish Idea Molded Federal Reserve System" was a reflection of Ford's suspicion of the Federal Reserve System and its proponent, Paul Warburg. Ford believed the Federal Reserve system was secretive and insidious.

These articles gave rise to claims of antisemitism against Ford, and in 1929 he signed a statement apologizing for the articles.

Nazi Germany

Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

Adolph Hitler's National Socialism party rose to power in Germany during a time of economic depression. Hitler blamed Jews for Germany's economic woes. Hitler's book Mein Kampf (German, My Struggle) included the following passage which was representative of much of the antisemitism in Germany and Europe: "The Jewish train of thought in all this is clear. The Bolshevization of Germany - that is, the extermination of the national folkish Jewish intelligentsia to make possible the sweating of the German working class under the yoke of Jewish world finance - is conceived only as a preliminary to the further extension of this Jewish tendency of world conquest.... If our people and our state become the victim of these blood-thirsty and avaricious Jewish tyrants of nations, the whole earth will sink into the snares of this octopus."

It is apparent that Hitler read the Dearborn Independent's articles, because several themes from the articles appear in Mein Kampf. Hitler even quoted the Dearborn Independent in Mein Kampf and Henry Ford was the only American that Hitler specifically names: "Every year they [the Jews] manage to become increasingly the controlling masters of the labor power of a people of 120,000,000 souls; one great man, Ford, to their exasperation still holds out independently there even now."

Federal Reserve System

The Anti Defamation League documented one of the more common aspects of money-related antisemitism: the claim that the United States' Federal Reserve System was created by Jews and is run by them for their own financial benefit. The ADL gives examples of this myth repeated by Aryan Nations , Louis Farrakhan, Sheldon Emry, and Wickliffe Vennard. Another example is James Gritz, the 1992 Presidential candidate of the Populist Party, in his book Called to Serve.

Abraham Foxman rebuts the Federal Reserve myth in his book Jews and Money, by explaining that the Federal Reserve system is a quasi-public entity that was created and is controlled by the United States Congress.

Islamic world

Various incarnations of money-related antisemitism have been documented in the Islamic world. In a 1968 conference at the University of Cairo, a speaker proclaimed that "money-worship [is among the] inherent qualities in them [the Jews]. ... They are characterized by avarice and many other vices, which arose from selfishness, love of worldly life, and envy...".

The Murabitun organization has published policy statements that are antisemitic and concentrate on breaking Jewish control of the world financial system.

According to Robert S. Wistrich, Hamas and Hezbollah routinely make pronouncements which blame "the world banking crisis on the Jews who supposedly control the American government and economy".

Osama bin Laden, in his 2002 Letter to America, wrote "You [United States] are the nation that permits usury, which has been forbidden by all religions. yet you build your economy and investments on Usury. As a result of all this, in all its different forms and guises, the Jews have taken control of your economy, through which they have taken control of your media, and now control all aspects of your life making you their servants and achieving aims at their expense."

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, told the United Nations General Assembly in 2008 that the Jews "have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers ... in a deceitful, complex, and furtive manner".

Abraham Foxman also identifies editorials, cartoons, and news stories throughout the Middle East as sources that repeat money-based antisemitic myths.

International

An early example of a money-related antisemitism was promulgated in France by Edouard Drumont in his 1879 pamphlet entitled What we Demand of Modern Jewry, in which he contrasted the poverty of the French workers with the wealth of the Jewish bankers and industrialists.

Abraham Foxman cites examples of money-based antisemitic canards found around the world, particularly in United Kingdom, Germany, Argentina, and Spain. Many modern instances of money-related antisemitism are found on the internet.

The Soviet Union often published money-oriented antisemitic statements, for example, William Korey documents a report published in 1977 by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR titled International Zionism: History and Politics alleging that "Jewish bourgeoisie", using Zionism as a cover, sought "the expansion of their positions in the economy of the largest capitalist states ... and in the economic system of world capitalism as a whole". The report specifically mentioned six Wall Street investment firms: Lazard Brothers, Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., Loeb Rhoades, Bache & Co., and Goldman-Sachs. The report also expounded on the "clannish" theory that Jewish financial firms around the world were related by family-ties and collaborated unethically.

African-American community

The Nation of Islam has promulgated some money-based antisemtic myths, particularly in their book The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews. Volume 1 of the book claims that Jews played a major role in the Atlantic slave trade, and profited from black slavery. Volume 2 of the book alleges that Jews in America exploited black labor and innovation, for instance in cotton, textiles, music, and banking. The book also asserts that Jews have promoted a myth of black racial inferiority.

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has also elaborated on these concepts in speeches, making statements such as "The Federal Reserve is the synagogue of Satan, … the House of Rothschild …", and "The Black man and woman have always been looked upon as the 'property' of White America, and particularly, members of the Jewish community …".

Populists and white supremacists

An early example of allegations of Jewish control of world finances, during the 1890s, is Mary Elizabeth Lease, an American farming activist and populist from Kansas, who frequently blamed the Rothschilds and the "British bankers" as the source of farmers' ills.

Activist Kieth Shive, of the Farmers Liberation Army in the United States, published a position paper in the 1980s which promoted agricultural activism and listed as goals "(1) Get rid of the privately held Federal Reserve System ... and its phony money; (2) Adopt a sane US monetary policy which eliminates interest payments to the International Bankers …". Author Daniel Levitas interprets this as a veiled antisemitic statement, because Shive also repeated a fictitious quote attributed to Mayer Amschel Rothschild "Let me issue and control the money of a country and I care not who passes the laws" which Shive contended applied to the United States Federal Reserve System.

In the 1970s, the White Supremacist movement in the United States adopted the position that Jews are "parasites and vultures" and are attempting to enslave Aryans through domination of world banking and media. White supremacists such as William L. Pierce have repeated money-based antisemitic myths.

The militia movement in the United States is also a source of money-based antisemitism, including leaders Bo Gritz, who alleges that the Federal Reserve System is controlled by Jews, and John Trochman who believes that the nation's problems are the fault of a Jewish "banking elite".

See also

• Secular Jewish culture#Economic participation

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