

Additionally, medieval Christian theology held that charging interest (known as usury) was sinful, which kept many Christians from becoming financiers. The most common explanation for this has been the exclusion of European Jews in the Middle Ages from various guilds, their confinement to ghettos and restrictions preventing them from owning land. Jews have been associated with moneylending for at least a millennia. Origins of the Jews and Money StereotypeĬaricature of Jewish stock-exchange speculators, in the German satirical magazine Fliegende Blätter in 1851. Related slurs include claims that Jews are wealthy, greedy and stingy, obsessed with material goods and profit, and that they exploit their economic advantages to help their own people, to the detriment of the public good. Supposed Jewish control of the global financial system - a feature of what some call economic anti-Semitism - was a major theme in Hitler’s war against European Jews, Father Coughlin’s anti-Semitic rants in the United States, and the czarist forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. That caricature lent a sinister undertone of greed and exploitation to Jewish financial dealings that would be invoked to justify anti-Jewish measures for centuries to come. Shakespeare’s Shylock character, a money lender who extracts a pound of flesh from a debtor who defaulted, is among history’s best-known caricatures of the Jewish businessman.
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Whatever its causes, Jewish business and financial success has more often than not been a major driver of anti-Semitism. However some academics contend that the historical evidence does not support this thesis and that Jewish financial success is instead due to the community’s high literacy rates.
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This is commonly attributed to the fact that for centuries, Jews were excluded from professional guilds and denied the right to own land, forcing them to work as merchants and financiers. While the notion that Jews control the world economy or banking system is an obvious canard, it is true that Jews have long been well-represented in the fields of finance and business. In China, books touting the supposed secrets of Jewish financial success have been best-sellers, while all over the world anti-Semites have long railed against Jews’ purported control of international banking. The idea that Jews are innately good with money is among the oldest Jewish stereotypes, one that continues to impact perceptions of Jews today. My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help Donate
