The Long, Ugly History of Socialism and Antisemitism

We might have thought after the Holocaust of the 1940’s, which resulted in the slaughter of some six million Jews, that nothing like it could ever happen again. It must thus be shocking for everyday Americans to witness the ever-more-naked antisemitism from those on the far left, as they seek to repeat history with open demonization of Jews and talk of wiping Israel off the face of the earth. But any reading of history reveals that Jew hatred has been part and parcel of socialism since its inception. In fact, while it is sometimes thinly veiled, stirring up resentment against Jews has been an indispensable element of socialism in its many forms over the decades.

The root cause of socialist antisemitism is a hatred of capitalism. As a people who have famously thrived under free markets, Jews become a natural target for hatred and conspiracy theories. But envy must also have much to do with it. Socialists gain popularity and power by convincing the powerless that they are being exploited by greedy Zionists and should be entitled to the fruits of other people’s labor. Simply put, steal from the rich and give to the poor. And who better to target with this modern-day Robin Hood philosophy than those who are the most successful?

Two centuries of Socialist Antisemitism

Socialist antisemitism has its roots in early 19th-century European intellectual history, where anti-Jewish prejudice became intermingled with growing criticism of capitalism. Since Jews were historically restricted from many professions, they concentrated heavily on finance and commerce, leading some early radical thinkers to conflate Jewish identity with capitalism and exploitation.

French socialist philosopher Charles Fourier saw the Jews as parasitical, deceitful, traitorous, and unproductive, according to Cambridge University Press. Fourier comrade Alphonse Toussenel argued that “finance, that is to say, Jews, were dominating and ruining France, while fellow socialist Auguste Blanqui sprinkled his correspondence with remarks about Jewish usury and ‘Shylocks.’” 

Then we come to Karl Marx, the father of modern totalitarianism. In his 1844 essay “On the Jewish Question,” Marx addressed the contemporary debate over Jewish emancipation in Germany, using traditional antisemitic economic tropes to equate Jews with avarice, trade, and capitalism. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Bolshevik leaders sought to dismantle Jewish cultural institutions and heavily suppressed Zionism, viewing it as bourgeois nationalism.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, per Cambridge Press, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin “launched a violent, officially sanctioned campaign against ‘rootless cosmopolitans’ – a thinly veiled codeword for Soviet Jews. This period saw the execution of prominent Jewish writers (the Night of the Murdered Poets) and the infamous Doctors’ Plot,” in which several Jews were falsely accused of plotting to assassinate Soviet leaders. Soviet propaganda began producing vast amounts of literature that conflated Zionism with racism and Nazism, frequently deploying traditional antisemitic conspiracy theories (such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion) under the guise of “anti-Zionism.”

Then we come to Germany in the 1940s and what remains even today, almost universally, the most definitive genocide in world history. Take note that the actual name of Hitler’s Nazis was the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. It makes the point that while socialism may have been depicted as far-right at that time and far-left today, the one thing that has united socialists across the spectrum is their taste for imposing strict limits on individual freedom.

Socialism on Parade

How bold is the current crop of socialists? Well, in her victory speech following the New York City Democratic 7th District congressional primary, Claire Valdez proudly proclaimed her district the “Commie Corridor.” Yes, she did not just admit her radicalism, or explain it, or rationalize it. She openly celebrated it, wore it as a badge of honor. This is how far down the rabbit hole the Democratic Party has fallen. The essential platform of socialists is demanding a mythical “free, free Palestine,” cutting off all aid to Israel, and punishing those who accept Jewish money, all the while trying to claim they only oppose the existence of the state of Israel and Zionism, not Jews in general. That specious argument is hardly bolstered by the fact that in another primary on Tuesday, a reliably progressive Jewish congressman, Dan Goldman, was crushed by Mamdani comrade Brad Lander in a landslide.

The Book of Ecclesiastes teaches us a very valuable lesson: There is nothing new under the sun. For those shocked by the sudden outbreak of quasi-communist hatred for Jews, it is perhaps cold comfort but nevertheless helpful to understand that socialism and antisemitism have been inexorably intertwined for two centuries. As has often been said, and time has consistently demonstrated, haters are going to hate.