Late to this. I think that people who hate Jews will blame them for things they don't like. If they dislike capitalism, Jews are capitalists, and if they dislike Communism, Jews are Communusts.
But as for Jews and Communism it makes absolute sense. My grandmother was a Communist, in Poland after WW2. It promises equality to everyone, education, no hunger. The problem is the reality of beinging the ideas to fruition.
Obviously religious Judaism is antithetical to Communism, but my grandmother had been rased not a fan of organized religion. But even so, Pesach is a huge holiday in my family because my grandmother believed it was a true Socialist holiday.
I can't wait to listen. My husband's great great uncle was the head the communists in bologna and the great aunt and her spouse were also communists. So hopefully they are the outliers
I loved it! I certainly learned a lot and it inspired me to figure out which authoritarian government my great grandfather escaped from (1903, austro Hungarian empire).
I think my general takeaway is this- for my conservative Christian family the worst insult we can hurl at liberals is calling them commies. Every person in my husband's (Jewish) family is to the left of Obama era democrat. Therefore, the natural insult would be to call them commies, but not literally mean it. (Except for, the actual commies in his family). So I think there's some benign name calling which is not related to the actual antisemite conspiracy theory. (One could imagine the same situation in the reverse calling all right leaving people fascists, whether benign or serious or in a left wing conspiratorial way overlapping with left wing antisemitic hamasniks calling Jews Nazis.) So basically horseshoe theory. (Sorry for rambling)
So many of us have stories like the Nuclear Blonde. My great great uncle (same exact relstion, lol) was a Socialist Party candidate for U.S. House multiple times, and indirectly responsible for Social Security, having literally written the book on social insurance. There are so, so similar stories, and it seemed just an extremely weird dodge that the guest refused to acknowledge how represented Jewish writers, thinkers, activists were in the history of leftism. Those of us on the progressive side are actually very proud of this tradition. Why was the ONLY anti-apartheid member of Parliament in South Africa a Jewish woman? It's not an accident of history.
I understand, begrudgingly, that the guest was here to talk about the history of the anti-Semitic canard that leftism itself is a Jewish plot with malevolent motives, so maybe I'm just asking for a different episode with a different focus (the role of Jews in 20th century left-liberalism), but the strange refusal to acknowledge and contextualize the obvious made the episode hard to listen to.
Very interesting podcast. I have just finished reading "Like dreamers" by Yossi Klein Halevi and I was expecting you to talk about the relationship between communism and the kibbutz movement, which, based on what I learned from the book, was an essential part of the building process of Israel. I think the book was absolutely fascinating (especially for someone like me, that is totally ignorant!), but I definitely have more questions now about the role of communism in the Israeli culture. If you have any book tips on this subject, let me know! :)
Late to this. I think that people who hate Jews will blame them for things they don't like. If they dislike capitalism, Jews are capitalists, and if they dislike Communism, Jews are Communusts.
But as for Jews and Communism it makes absolute sense. My grandmother was a Communist, in Poland after WW2. It promises equality to everyone, education, no hunger. The problem is the reality of beinging the ideas to fruition.
Obviously religious Judaism is antithetical to Communism, but my grandmother had been rased not a fan of organized religion. But even so, Pesach is a huge holiday in my family because my grandmother believed it was a true Socialist holiday.
I can't wait to listen. My husband's great great uncle was the head the communists in bologna and the great aunt and her spouse were also communists. So hopefully they are the outliers
We’ll be interested in hearing what you think!
I loved it! I certainly learned a lot and it inspired me to figure out which authoritarian government my great grandfather escaped from (1903, austro Hungarian empire).
I think my general takeaway is this- for my conservative Christian family the worst insult we can hurl at liberals is calling them commies. Every person in my husband's (Jewish) family is to the left of Obama era democrat. Therefore, the natural insult would be to call them commies, but not literally mean it. (Except for, the actual commies in his family). So I think there's some benign name calling which is not related to the actual antisemite conspiracy theory. (One could imagine the same situation in the reverse calling all right leaving people fascists, whether benign or serious or in a left wing conspiratorial way overlapping with left wing antisemitic hamasniks calling Jews Nazis.) So basically horseshoe theory. (Sorry for rambling)
So many of us have stories like the Nuclear Blonde. My great great uncle (same exact relstion, lol) was a Socialist Party candidate for U.S. House multiple times, and indirectly responsible for Social Security, having literally written the book on social insurance. There are so, so similar stories, and it seemed just an extremely weird dodge that the guest refused to acknowledge how represented Jewish writers, thinkers, activists were in the history of leftism. Those of us on the progressive side are actually very proud of this tradition. Why was the ONLY anti-apartheid member of Parliament in South Africa a Jewish woman? It's not an accident of history.
I understand, begrudgingly, that the guest was here to talk about the history of the anti-Semitic canard that leftism itself is a Jewish plot with malevolent motives, so maybe I'm just asking for a different episode with a different focus (the role of Jews in 20th century left-liberalism), but the strange refusal to acknowledge and contextualize the obvious made the episode hard to listen to.
Very interesting podcast. I have just finished reading "Like dreamers" by Yossi Klein Halevi and I was expecting you to talk about the relationship between communism and the kibbutz movement, which, based on what I learned from the book, was an essential part of the building process of Israel. I think the book was absolutely fascinating (especially for someone like me, that is totally ignorant!), but I definitely have more questions now about the role of communism in the Israeli culture. If you have any book tips on this subject, let me know! :)