Dennis Prager, himself a Jew, points out that virtually all -isms, except Nazism, were founded or led disproportionately by Jews: Marxism, humanism, feminism, environmentalism, LGBTQism, etc.
I do not deny Jewish involvement in all of these movements and in some cases that involvement was disproportionate to the Jewish population as a whole. But I also think Prager is exaggerating for effect. Of course, there are leftist Jews who brag that they were behind the whole progressive movement in America. But again, this is exaggeration, though of a different sort.
Let’s look at the facts.
For example, Jews played a role, but a small one, in the initial rise of Western feminism. Mary Wollstonecraft was not a Jew. Neither were Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Susan B. Anthony. Neither were second tier leaders like Lucretia Mott and Lucy Stone. The Jews involved in the early feminist movement in America are not household names and actually experienced quite a bit of anti-Semitism. Stanton in particular believed that Judaism was a source of female oppression. You really have to scrape the bottom of the barrell to give Jews any credit for launching Western/American feminism.
I asked Grok about this and the answer squares with my own sense of history:
“Yes, some Jewish women were notable leaders and activists in first-wave feminism (roughly 1840s–1920s, centered on suffrage, property rights, and legal equality), but they were not the primary architects or dominant leaders of its rise. The core founders and strategists were overwhelmingly Protestant Christian women of British or Northern European descent. Jewish participation grew stronger in the later phases, especially among immigrant working-class communities in the U.S. and parts of Europe, but it was secondary to the movement’s origins…The movement’s origins and top-tier direction were driven by non-Jewish (primarily Protestant) women. Claims of Jewish “control” or primary leadership overstate the evidence and ignore the broader historical record.”
Ernestine Rose would be the only Jewish woman of note in early American feminism and the suffrage movement, and she was a rather minor figure. Quakers had a much, much larger role in early American feminism than Jews.
Of course, several Jewish women did become prominent in later waves of feminism, especially Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and Shulasmith Firestone, beginning in the 1960s. But there were and are plenty of non-Jewish women who promote feminism at a high level as well. And the household names on the list of prominent Jewish feminists were late to the party, long after things like women’s suffrage were established.
What about communism? Marx was from a non-religious Jewish family that had converted to Christianity before his birth. Marx became an atheist and never showed any real interest in Judaism or Christianity. Jews were certainly heavily involved in the Bolshevik movement in Russia, but the principle leaders in implementing Marxism in Russia, like Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, and later Joseph Stalin, were not Jewish. It would really not be accurate to call Marxism a distinctively “Jewish” movement. In 1917, Jews made up about 4% at most of the Bolshevik party (compared to about 2% of the total population) and most Jews were more moderate politically (though still leaning towards a kind of socialism). As the communists came to power, Jews were initially overrepresented in positions of leadership compared to their share of the overall population, but were always a minority in the party. Having a disproportionate number of Jews at the top is par for the course, given their penchant for being skilled at whatever they do, whether good or evil. Stalin purged the communist party in the 1930s, which largely eliminated Jews from positions of leadership, and in the post-war period there were further anti-Semitic purges. The Russian Revolution was far more Russian than Jewish. So Jews played a role in the rise of communism but they were hardly alone.
I asked Grok why Jews were over represented in the early communist movement and got this response:
“Historians (e.g., Yuri Slezkine in The Jewish Century) note Jews as a highly urban, mobile, literate “service” minority historically drawn to idea-based fields and radical universalism—escaping tradition and discrimination via secular ideologies like Marxism. This mirrors overrepresentation in capitalism, academia, or media. Religious/traditional Jews largely rejected communism as atheistic. Most Jews worldwide were never communists; many were anti-communist (e.g., American Jewish Committee during the Red Scare).”
Again, that squares pretty well with my own sense of the history. Jews were involved in a significant way, but most Jews were not, and many non-Jews were also key leaders in the movement. To further complicate the picture, many Jews in America and elsewhere have been explicitly anti-Marxist. Ludwig von Mises, a leading figure in the Austrian school of free market economics, and Milton Friedman, a noted classical liberal and opponent of socialism, were both Jewish. So Jews have been leaders in communism and anti-comminism movements.
Jews certainly played a huge role in the rise of Cultural Marxism in America, where members of the Frankfurt school settled in at Columbia University in the 1930s. But they were welcomed there by university president Nicholas Murray Butler (an Episcopalian) precisely because Columbia (and other elite American institutions) were already moving in that direction. Radicals were already invading college campuses. The Second Great Awakening created key shifts in American religion and society, producing theological liberalism and social gospel utopianism in the North, while giving rise to fundamentalism in the South. After the Civil War (America’s version of the French Revolution), the North was largely given over to forms of socialism and liberalism. In other words, the table was already set for Cultural Marxism before the 1930s – and Jews played a minimal role in that preparation. We can thank men like Washington Gladden and Walter Rauschenbusch for that, as they reduced the Christian faith to a program of social betterment and egalitarianism through the power of the state. The Jewish Cultural Marxists at Columbia were going with the grain of a Yankee culture already moving in that direction, thanks to a host of forces, including Darwinism (and of course, Darwin was not a Jew), a surge of Roman Catholic immigration, and the spirit of rebellion unleashed in the French Revolution that made its way over here.
But even then, we have to keep in mind that Jews are all over the political and cultural spectrum in the 19th and 20th centuries. For example, Judah P. Benjamin was a practicing/religious Jew from Louisiana in the 19th century. He was a Senator before the Civil War, then a leader in the Confederacy, earning the nickname “the brains of the Confederacy” while serving as Secretary of War under President Jefferson Davis.
There is no question secular Jews have been disproportionately represented in the entertainment industry (eg, Hollywood) and the porn industry. They were involved in getting obscenity laws diluted. They were major players in the rise of smut in popular culture. No question. But they were hardly alone. The man in Hollywood who probably did more to than anyone else to corrupt pop culture in my generation in the 1980s (Gen X), John Hughes, was not Jewish.
Why did Jews gravitate to various forms of the entertainment industry in America? Jewish immigrants and their descendants entered stigmatized fields with low barriers to entry, like the film industry, largely because it’s where they had opportunities. This is also true of porn. Jew Reuben Sturman became known as the “Walt Disney of Porn.” Jew Al Goldstein pushed porn on society in all kinds of ways and often bragged about Jewish involvement in the industry. But note that the most famous and influential American pornographers, who were on the cutting edge of pushing all facets of the Sexual Revolution, Hugh Hefner, Larry Flynt, and Bob Guccione, were not Jewish. It’s been pointed out that that the man who turned OnlyFans into a big business, Leonid Radvinsky, was a Jew and major AIPAC donor. True enough. But the founder of OnlyFans, Tim Stokely, was not Jewish.
I could keep going, but this is my overarching point: Jews are sinners. Gentiles are sinners. Apart from Christ, people will do what sinners do, often without restraint. Since most Jews are non-Christians, they do non-Christian things like all non-Christians do, and because they are generally a talented people, they can do very corrupt things with a kind of perverted excellence. But when we survey the great evils of modern progressivism, the evils that have largely wrecked the culture of Christendom, we find that the wreckage was generally a collaboration of evil people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. It’s common today for many to point the finger at Jews as if they are uniquely malevolent. It is quite popular to scapegoat the Jewish people as THE source of feminism, communism, and pornography. Filtering the evidence in a certain way could lead to that conclusion. But if we are honest with the totality of the evidence, we will have to conclude something a bit different: the destruction of the Christian West, like the crucifixion of Christ, was a Jew/Gentile collaboration (cf. Psalm 2:1-3, Acts 4:27).
The importance of the Jewish Question is vastly exaggerated. Answering the JQ is not the solution to our cultural ills. For example, while the overall Jewish population leans more to the left politically, historically, their left/right breakdown is only slightly to the left of Roman Catholics in America. One could easily make the case that Romans Catholics, despite their on-paper teachings, have played a bigger overall role in pushing some aspects of liberalism and globalism (especially in the form of unlimited immigration) on America than Jews. And the current Pope continues that trend. Pope Leo touts Marxist equality, criticizes the enforcement of American immigration laws, and refuses to condemn sodomy. Plus, there are pockets of Jews who are very conservative. In the last election, Orthodox Jews voted for Republicans at a higher clip than evangelicals.
Many Jews, for a mix of cultural and genetic reasons, are high achievers for good or ill. That means when they go bad, they go really bad. I am not denying the terrible and subversive influence many Jews have had on the modern West in general or on America in particular. Not at all. The facts are what they are. It is fine to notice them.
Whereas Islamic opposition to the West is overt, Jewish opposition to the West is more covert. There is no question Jews have played at least a somewhat disproportionate role in subverting America’s Christian heritage. Again, they are non-Christians doing what non-Christians do. Further, I do not doubt the modern nation of Israel has had way too much influence on American foreign policy. Pat Buchanan was not altogether wrong when he called Congress “Israeli occupied territory.” But the problem here is much bigger than Jews — our politicians, universities, and other institutions are often selling themselves off to the highest bidder, whether its Qatar, China, Big Pharma or whoever — but, yes, AIPAC, George Soros, and other Jewish groups and individuals have played their part. The Jews are behind a lot of bad things in the world, no doubt.
But here’s my point, once more: the Jews have plenty of accomplices. Gentiles have their own culpability and it is simply an effeminate flight from responsibility to scapegoat the Jews for our problems in America. Jews did not make America progressive. There were many Gentiles who played a major role in the downfall of the West. And even if we assume the Jews were the major players in the rise of progressivism, we’d have to admit non-Jewish Americans were either evil enough to go along with it or dumb enough to fall for it. Neither presents a flattering picture of us. Whatever the case, the game of “blame the Jews” so many are playing today is not bearing good fruit. And it can’t bear good fruit because it is not a form of repentance. Looking for a scapegoat is not the same as confessing sin. Blaming others is the antithesis of taking responsibility.
Jewish conspiracy theories — the idea that Jews secretly run everything — simply gives them too much credit. The world is not that simple. Sure, Jews often have power and money. But so do a lot of other people. The antithesis is not between evil Jews and good Gentiles. The antithesis is between those who follow Christ and those who reject him. And plenty of Gentiles are just as rebellious against Christ’s kingship as most Jews are in our day. The way some people describe the role of the Jews ascribes almost God-like omniscience and omnipotence to them. This kind of thinking produces a victim mentality — we Gentiles are all victims of those cunning Jews. “Damnation is of the Jews,” seems to be the mindset. But this is a lie. Gentiles can do horrific evils all on their own, apart from Jewish influence.
White Western Europeans (and from them, Americans) may have risen to the apex of cultural glory, but we should not forget where we came from. Someone once said, “Before Christianity came to the shores of these islands, the British people were running round buck naked, painted blue and eating each other. Those are your ‘British values. The rest is Christianity.” That’s most certainly true. Caesar, in writing home, said of the Britons, “They are the most ignorant people I have ever conquered. They cannot be taught music.” Cicero, in writing to his friend Atticus, advised him not to buy slaves in England, “because they cannot be taught to read, and are the ugliest and most stupid race I ever saw.” Druids certainly practiced human sacrifice early on; some historians believe they also practiced cannibalism. They were definitely savages. Julius Caesar, who led the first Roman landing to Briton in 55 B.C. said the native Celts “believe that the gods delight in the slaughter of prisoners and criminals, and when the supply of captives runs short, they sacrifice even the innocent.” First-century historian Pliny the Elder went further, suggesting the Celts practiced ritual cannibalism, eating their enemies’ flesh as a source of spiritual and physical strength. Of course, the Celts had no written language so they left no records of their own depravity. Herodian described the Celts this way: “They are without clothes but with necks and waist adorned with iron, valuing the metal as an ornament and a display of wealth as for gold to other Barbarians. They also draw (grafaís) patterns and pictures of various animals on their bodies and this why they’re naked as for not cover them.” Those are my ancestors. That’s what my people are like bereft of the gospel. I have nothing to boast about except for the cross of Christ which transformed my people. Western civilization was not a natural product of Western peoples. It was the product of grace, as God’s kingdom permeated the batch of European dough, leavening the whole lump. Without that grace, I have no doubt we would quickly revert to what we once were.
The real problem facing America is not Jews, or Muslims, or Democrats. The real problem confronting us is the judgment of God. Christ is threatening to beak us into pieces with his rod of iron (cf. Psalm 2:9). While politics matters a great deal, there is no political solution to this problem. The solution, as always, is repentance. Repent of perish is as true for nations as it is for individuals.
It’s common today to point at NT passages that describe the wickedness of first century Jews and use that as a prop for Jew-blaming today. Passages like 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15 are getting a workout. But consider what the NT says about the Gentile way of life outside of Christ in texts like Romans 1:18ff and Ephesians 4:17ff. Gentiles are perfectly capable of going off the rails into socialism/communism, feminism, and porn with or without Jewish help. Gentiles and Jews alike are in desperate need of the grace of Christ found in the gospel.
The real problem with the current dank right/alt-right version of Jew-blaming is that is assumes that the goyim — particularly the white American goyim — are not as fallen as other people, and certainly not as fallen as the Jews. But there is plenty of evidence from Scripture (which teaches us the heart of EVERY man is by nature desperately wicked) and from history (see what I said about pagan Briton above) that this simply isn’t true. In Romans 2, Paul sought to convince Jews that were just as need in grace as the Gentiles. But today, quite a few Gentiles need to be reminded they are just as in need of grace as the Jews. Judging Jews, blaming Jews, scapegoating Jews, exaggerating Jewish sins or Jewish influence, all to prop up your own righteousness and make excuses for your own people, is not a solution. It’s doubling down on the problem. Modern day Israel is a wicked nation. But guess what? Modern day America is too. And we have no one to blame for that but ourselves. We had a glorious heritage, and we have managed to squander it. What’s the answer? The only solution is Christ and his grace. The only solution is confessing sin — our own sin — and turning to the Lord in repentance.
Some have pointed out in the last week that the nation of Israel is about to hold a government-sponsored LGBTQ event near the ancient location of Sodom. Obviously, this is utterly wicked. It is giving the middle finger to God. Israel deserves fire from heaven for its wickedness. If this keeps up, Tel Aviv will soon be as wicked as San Francisco and Minneapolis. God help us all.
Which way, Western man? Will we begin to take responsibility, confess our sin, repent, and change course? Or will we double down on buck-passing and blame-shifting?
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This X post has the Prager quote I started with:
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