The marriage between socialism and antisemitism
It is particularly ironic that the political and economic ideology, known as socialism, got its start from a Jew named Karl Marx. Believed to have significantly shaped this philosophy, due to his contempt for capitalism and owning private property, Marx saw everything through the prism of inequity in which the rich exploited the working class.
To solve that disparity, he envisioned a society where everything would be collectively owned and controlled, effectively erasing economic gaps in status.
Born in 1818 in the Prussian province of Trier, which later became Germany, his father, in an attempt to advance his career as a lawyer, converted to Protestantism, resulting in Karl Marx and his siblings being baptized into the Lutheran Church.
But despite the adoption of another religion, nothing could change the Jewish ethnicity which ran on both sides of the family, including the fact that his grandfather was a rabbi. So, it’s particularly grievous to note that Marx viewed capitalist Jews as “greedy manipulators of money.”
But Jewish ethnicity is a funny thing, because, similar to Marx, British statesman, Benjamin Disraeli’s father also left the faith, causing his son to become Anglican. Nonetheless, it didn’t prevent Disraeli from receiving nasty anti-Jewish insults.
Although Marx initially blamed the Jews, in his early writings, he changed the culprit to capitalism, as a way to avoid it backfiring on him. It’s not apparent whether or not the switch was adopted by future devotees of the ideology. However, what is clear today, is that many who call themselves socialists, are also individuals who have an aversion towards Israel and the Jewish people.
The latest case in point would be Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani who received the most votes in the primary runoff for the position of Mayor of New York, beating out former N.Y. governor Andrew Cuomo. The astonishing results not only came as a shock, since Mamdani unashamedly calls himself a socialist, outlining the many free services he would offer, should he win, but also because of his controversial position concerning Jews.
As someone who has defended the antisemitic movement called, “globalize the intifada,” it’s truly an enigma how he was able to pull off so many votes in a city which has the largest Jewish population in the world, only second to that of Israel. Mamdani, a huge critic of Israeli, “refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist, specifically as a Jewish state.”
Born in Uganda, Mamdani moved to New York at age 7. In Shia Islam, the faith with which he identifies, there is, among some, the belief that Jews are ritually unclean. Also espoused by some Shia leaders is the assertion that “Jews are the source of global corruption.”
If these beliefs are held by Mamdani, it would fuel the same kind of early socialist sentiments expressed by Karl Marx - that the Jews were the true culprits whose greed for money was responsible for the inequities which existed in society. It might also explain the proposed policies which Mamdani hopes to implement in the event that he wins the upcoming election.
Those include abolishing prisons, abolishing police, a freeze on rent, free buses, free childcare, $30 minimum wage and city-owned grocery stores, just to name a few. Of course, if enacted, Mamdani’s dream of a level economic playing field would be his anticipated results, although no one else believes such an outcome to be possible.
Knowing that charges of antisemitism will serve to alienate the large Jewish community and prevent them from voting for him, Mamdani has stated that it pains him to be labeled as an antisemite. Consequently, he tried to bring nuance to the phrase “globalize the intifada” by saying that the statement is often misunderstood, meaning many things to many people.
But for Jews, especially, there is no other interpretation than the common definition of a violent uprising, which seeks to war against Jewish and Christians, who represent much of Western society.
Although some say that as mayor, Mamdani would not be a threat to the city’s Jews, since he would not be involved in international matters, as a proponent of the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) movement, what would stop him from seeking to ban products made in Israel from being sold in the city which would be under his jurisdiction? After all, if supermarkets are city owned and run, why wouldn’t those products be unwelcome in the town where he makes policy?
As a socialist, Mamdani would have a great deal of influence as to what gets approved and rejected. His inbred bias, based on his religious views, his upbringing and other factors, has the potential to greatly influence how he may view the causes of inequity and the way to remedy them. What’s to say that such a tendency would not translate into alienating Jews whom he might see as an impediment to the societal changes he aspires to effect?
This is the danger which could be responsible for turning New York City into a very hostile place for Jews who have, up until recently, lived there, feeling as much at home as they do in Israel. New York has traditionally been a haven for Jews, more than any other place in the world. Known for its Jewish cuisine, history, neighborhoods, even to the point of Yiddish words creeping into the English language, the city has been the birthplace to millions of second, third and fourth generation Jews whose parents, grandparents and great-grandparents arrived at its shores in the hope of a better life.
Many escaped the antisemitism of pre-Nazi Europe, known for its pogroms, persecution and great hardship for Jews who merely wanted to fit in with their local communities but were often singled out as being unworthy to be counted among their citizenry. That is why the records of Ellis Island are filled with the names of Jews whose months’ long journey to America, and specifically to New York, was the fulfillment of their greatest dreams.
Now, that dream could become a nightmare if Zohran Mamdani becomes the next mayor of The Big Apple. Because the man who hopes to radically change the face of the city is wedded to two ideologies which first paint Jews as the problem and then seeks to eliminate it by way of ostracizing them. It is that marriage between socialism and antisemitism which threatens to irreversibly change New York forever.
In the words of the late great Frank Sinatra, “It’s up to you, New York, New York.”
A former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal who made Aliyah in 1993 and became a member of Kibbutz Reim but now lives in the center of the country with her husband. She is the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, based on the principles from the book of Proverbs - available on Amazon.
