a popular line of clothing that many youths wear has the words “anti social social club.” i always see people mulling around thinking they are just so cool wearing the stuff.
it got me thinking. is there another club like that? the “anti-semite semite club?”
i thought more about this. how can a person from one group arguably hate those within it?
in the field of psychology, there was the famous case of “stockholm syndrome.” “stockholm syndrome” involves situations in which “hostages or abuse victims may come to sympathize with their captives. this is the opposite of the fear, terror, and disdain that might be expected from the victims in these situations. over the course of time, some victims do come to develop positive feelings toward their captors. they may even begin to feel as if they share common goals and causes. the victim may begin to develop negative feelings toward the police or authorities. they may resent anyone who may be trying to help them escape from the dangerous situation they’re in.” healthline.
if there was an “anti-semite semite club”, there are many who would nominate george soros, a jewish billionaire who supports progressive causes, to be one of the first members.
according to a positive piece about mr. soros in the washington post, it provides his history in the holocaust as “[i]n actuality soros, whose father, tivadar, had previously changed the family’s last name from schwartz to soros so as to be less obviously jewish in an increasingly anti-semitic budapest, disguised himself as a christian during the second world war. his father procured identity papers for his own family and others. As soros pointed out, the man with whom young soros was hiding out did once bring him along when he went to take inventory of a jewish person’s house, but soros was not involved in the confiscation of jewish goods. likewise, while soros was, as a student, sent to run errands at the judenrat, a council of jews whom the nazis forced to do their bidding, he did not round up jewish people. in fact, per soros’s recollection, when he was given a list of names, with instructions to tell them to report to a location from which they would be deported, his father said he should not tell them to go.”
is george soros an anti-semite? this is a subject of debate. the begin-sadat center for strategic studies issued a perspectives paper no. 1,786, october 26, 2020, which provided an executive summary that “from a jewish and israeli point of view, there are two main issues to look at when analyzing the activities of american jewish billionaire george soros. the first are his damaging statements and actions against jews and israel, and the second are antisemitic attacks on soros himself. for jews, the problems that arise around these issues require fine tuning of their reactions to soros’s statements and actions.”
a disgression. arguably the ten commandments story reveals god as an antisemite.
in deuteronomy 9:13, in the recounting of an the golden calf incident, it states that “and the lord spoke to me [further], saying, “i have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people. leave me alone, and i will destroy them and obliterate their name from beneath the heavens, and i will make you into a nation mightier and more numerous than they.”” moses turned down the opportunity and convinced god to maintain a covenant with the children of israel.
the golden calf incident essentially involved aaron, the priest, allowing the people to create a golden calf which amounted to idolatry. it can be argued that he allowed for it so he could make people happy. making people happy was more important than acting in a moral fashion.
what to make of george soros? it can be argued that he acts are an attempt to make happy and pacify others. he had experiences early in life in which he apparently acted in a way to make his oppressors happy. he cooperated with them. in saying this, it is not that he acted like the nazis, it is simply that his actions were not adverse to them. in the favorable piece, there is no recollection from mr. soros that he did anything to fight against the nazi or resist them. with mr. soros, he supports many groups. there are those who believe that some of the groups he supports are intent on destroying israel, the jewish homeland.
is george soros an anti-semite? again, this can be argued either way. i choose to not render an opinion. this exercise, however, raises a more important issue as to how we should live our lives.
what should is the lesson to be learned? how do you act in life? do you act to make others happy? or , do you act in a moral way and not be primarily concerned on others happiness?
acting to make others happy is dangerous. doing so can lead you to do horrible things. who are the others? the others you may be involved with may be criminals who want you to participate in crime. the others you may be involved with may be drug users who want you to do drugs. the others may be haters want you to engage in class, religious, or racial hatred. thus, making others happy cannot be a primary means of acting.
what is the solution? the solution is to base your actions on morality. you should disregard the happiness of others and focus on what is the moral way to act. you must trust that the moral way is the way to take care of others and their needs. satisfying their happiness without regard to morality is the recipe for disaster. thus, acting morally should be the primary means of acting.
be well!
are you aware that there is a jewish holocaust survivorisarael
ASHINGTON — By now, it has become a familiar pattern: After an event that polarizes the country, US President Donald Trump knows who to pin the blame on.
When liberal and conservative America was split over Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court conformation fight last month — and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations that he sexually assaulted her in high school — the president spread a theory that was sure to inflame that divide.https://a7f1e1cb50ca8b65aaf5e1349fcbd74b.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
He said the left-wing billionaire George Soros was paying the masses of demonstrators who had descended on Capitol Hill, and who were pushing senators to reject Kavanaugh’s bid for the high court.
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“The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it!” Trump tweeted. “Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love!”
Central American migrants making their way to the US in a large caravan fill the truck of a driver who offered them the free ride, as they arrive to Tapachula, Mexico, on October 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Then this week, the president promulgated an unfounded conspiracy theory that the very same Democratic megadonor was funding a caravan of Central American migrants. “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Trump told reporters.
Those two instances — and the reactions to them — reflected the bizarre role George Soros is playing in the American public’s imagination. So, too, did revelations that an explosive device was sent to his house and that Robert Bowers, the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, was driven by the myth that Soros was behind the migrant caravan heading north in Mexico.
“This latest round of conspiracy theories about Soros, fueled by tweets by high profile public officials, are hardly new,” Aryeh Tuchman, associate director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, told The Times of Israel.https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?guci=2.2.0.0.2.2.0.0&client=ca-pub-3622156405313063&output=html&h=280&slotname=67c84a6.da57237&adk=130363673&adf=3134840686&pi=t.ma~as.67c84a6.da57237&w=336&lmt=1605883502&psa=1&format=336×280&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.timesofisrael.com%2Fhow-george-soros-became-the-target-of-both-anti-semites-and-right-wing-jews%2F&flash=0&wgl=1&adsid=ChAIgO_d_QUQhfK43ayb8ccdEkgAesXdautyiZHRQbdF0oEe_lmupK0byAXT8lx1S5DAt4Rxy5G9vfK3f-gsF9Yi-Lg2GDqjoZL-09QwH1Olg-2b_hMkdupbdZo&tt_state=W3siaXNzdWVyT3JpZ2luIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hZHNlcnZpY2UuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbSIsInN0YXRlIjowfSx7Imlzc3Vlck9yaWdpbiI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXR0ZXN0YXRpb24uYW5kcm9pZC5jb20iLCJzdGF0ZSI6MH1d&dt=1605883502116&bpp=9&bdt=17251&idt=44&shv=r20201112&cbv=r20190131&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&cookie=ID%3D8e221044fb7da3db%3AT%3D1605534129%3AS%3DALNI_MYwtcZgneOktjT_9fCnUB1QXRhCPw&correlator=7959990974993&frm=20&pv=2&ga_vid=1446089231.1603647121&ga_sid=1605883490&ga_hid=193260205&ga_fc=0&iag=0&icsg=3378421316976640&dssz=76&mdo=0&mso=0&u_tz=-480&u_his=4&u_java=0&u_h=1200&u_w=1920&u_ah=1160&u_aw=1920&u_cd=24&u_nplug=3&u_nmime=4&adx=632&ady=2787&biw=1903&bih=1089&scr_x=0&scr_y=4674&eid=42530671&oid=2&pvsid=3058147525929120&pem=755&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&rx=0&eae=0&fc=896&brdim=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C1920%2C0%2C1920%2C1160%2C1920%2C1089&vis=1&rsz=%7C%7CoeE%7C&abl=CS&pfx=0&fu=8192&bc=31&jar=2020-11-20-14&ifi=8&uci=a!8&fsb=1&xpc=VRaHmmjlxS&p=https%3A//www.timesofisrael.com&dtd=70
He added that, in a May report analyzing anti-Semitic speech on Twitter, the ADL noted that Soros was prominently mentioned in a large chunk of anti-Semitic tweets, often with claims that he directly uses his largesse to fund false flag events.
One noteworthy allegation said that Soros was responsible for August 2017’s deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Other tweets, Tuchman said, “referred to his Jewish heritage in pejorative terms and claimed that he’s trying to undermine all of Western civilization.”
George Soros speaks onstage at Lincoln Center on April 18, 2017, in New York City. (Andrew Toth/Getty Images for Physicians for Human Rights/AFP)
As many noted after Trump falsely said that Soros was funding the Kavanaugh protests and the migrant caravans, the president was taking a page right out of the anti-Semites’ playbook.
Yet many of Soros’s fiercest critics are themselves Jewish. The Republican Jewish Coalition often castigates Soros for giving money to left-wing advocacy groups like J Street — and for his foundation giving to other groups they characterize as anti-Israel, like Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem.https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?guci=2.2.0.0.2.2.0.0&client=ca-pub-3622156405313063&output=html&h=280&slotname=ac8e416.417c46a&adk=2750289980&adf=433026287&pi=t.ma~as.ac8e416.417c46a&w=336&lmt=1605883504&psa=1&format=336×280&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.timesofisrael.com%2Fhow-george-soros-became-the-target-of-both-anti-semites-and-right-wing-jews%2F&flash=0&wgl=1&adsid=ChAIgO_d_QUQhfK43ayb8ccdEkgAesXdautyiZHRQbdF0oEe_lmupK0byAXT8lx1S5DAt4Rxy5G9vfK3f-gsF9Yi-Lg2GDqjoZL-09QwH1Olg-2b_hMkdupbdZo&tt_state=W3siaXNzdWVyT3JpZ2luIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hZHNlcnZpY2UuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbSIsInN0YXRlIjowfSx7Imlzc3Vlck9yaWdpbiI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXR0ZXN0YXRpb24uYW5kcm9pZC5jb20iLCJzdGF0ZSI6MH1d&dt=1605883504830&bpp=2&bdt=19964&idt=3&shv=r20201112&cbv=r20190131&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&cookie=ID%3D8e221044fb7da3db-2211f6d5f6c400a9%3AT%3D1605883502%3ART%3D1605883502%3AS%3DALNI_MYAz-Hp9KB-MyNdjwVft0CqXJ4nqA&prev_fmts=336×280%2C0x0&nras=1&correlator=7959990974993&frm=20&pv=1&ga_vid=1446089231.1603647121&ga_sid=1605883490&ga_hid=193260205&ga_fc=0&iag=0&icsg=11545543180288&dssz=82&mdo=0&mso=0&u_tz=-480&u_his=4&u_java=0&u_h=1200&u_w=1920&u_ah=1160&u_aw=1920&u_cd=24&u_nplug=3&u_nmime=4&adx=632&ady=4053&biw=1903&bih=1089&scr_x=0&scr_y=6367&eid=42530671&oid=2&psts=AGkb-H-3AiKzPXzu_phrMw94IbL_w6Y70aRhUyRt7aB5CWbyejyXmU8wmag&pvsid=3058147525929120&pem=755&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&rx=0&eae=0&fc=896&brdim=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C1920%2C0%2C1920%2C1160%2C1920%2C1089&vis=1&rsz=%7C%7CoeE%7C&abl=CS&pfx=0&fu=8192&bc=31&jar=2020-11-20-14&ifi=9&uci=a!9&fsb=1&xpc=y4vSktDyGj&p=https%3A//www.timesofisrael.com&dtd=12
The more people seem to increasingly retreat into their tribal loyalties, George Soros has brought two divergent tribes together. He has become the go-to bogeyman of both the Jewish right and anti-Semites.
Who is George Soros?
Born in Budapest in 1930, Soros was 13 years old when the Nazis invaded Hungary. He managed to survive to Holocaust, and his family purchased documents that said they were Christians. By 1947, he had immigrated to England to become a student at the London School of Economics.
From there, he started his work in finance through a London bank, Singer and Friedlander, where he was a broker. Over the next several years, he jumped around firms before he founded Soros Fund Management.
His investment management firm was wildly successful. Since 1973, it has generated more than $40 billion. Soros, who lives in Westchester County, New York, is now estimated to be worth roughly $8 billion, making him one of the richest people in the world.
Former US president George W. Bush (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images/JTA)
With his wealth, Soros has become active in liberal causes. He first became politically engaged, according to The Washington Post, after the 2004 election, when George W. Bush won a second term against then senator John Kerry.
Beyond being one of the main funders of Democratic candidates in the United States, he also dips his money into left-wing advocacy groups.
Through his organization, Open Society Foundations, an international grant-making network, he has been a primary donor of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and Democracy Alliance. He also gave large sums of money to the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, including $1 million to a Super PAC supporting the former during the 2012 campaign.https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?guci=2.2.0.0.2.2.0.0&client=ca-pub-3622156405313063&output=html&h=280&slotname=4039660.aa6ba64&adk=1256802310&adf=140319649&pi=t.ma~as.4039660.aa6ba64&w=336&lmt=1605883508&psa=1&format=336×280&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.timesofisrael.com%2Fhow-george-soros-became-the-target-of-both-anti-semites-and-right-wing-jews%2F&flash=0&wgl=1&adsid=ChAIgO_d_QUQhfK43ayb8ccdEkgAesXdautyiZHRQbdF0oEe_lmupK0byAXT8lx1S5DAt4Rxy5G9vfK3f-gsF9Yi-Lg2GDqjoZL-09QwH1Olg-2b_hMkdupbdZo&tt_state=W3siaXNzdWVyT3JpZ2luIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hZHNlcnZpY2UuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbSIsInN0YXRlIjowfSx7Imlzc3Vlck9yaWdpbiI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXR0ZXN0YXRpb24uYW5kcm9pZC5jb20iLCJzdGF0ZSI6MH1d&dt=1605883508848&bpp=3&bdt=23983&idt=3&shv=r20201112&cbv=r20190131&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&cookie=ID%3D8e221044fb7da3db-2211f6d5f6c400a9%3AT%3D1605883502%3ART%3D1605883502%3AS%3DALNI_MYAz-Hp9KB-MyNdjwVft0CqXJ4nqA&prev_fmts=336×280%2C0x0%2C336x280&nras=1&correlator=7959990974993&frm=20&pv=1&ga_vid=1446089231.1603647121&ga_sid=1605883490&ga_hid=193260205&ga_fc=0&iag=0&icsg=46182172721152&dssz=83&mdo=0&mso=0&u_tz=-480&u_his=4&u_java=0&u_h=1200&u_w=1920&u_ah=1160&u_aw=1920&u_cd=24&u_nplug=3&u_nmime=4&adx=632&ady=5370&biw=1903&bih=1089&scr_x=0&scr_y=8603&eid=42530671&oid=2&psts=AGkb-H-3AiKzPXzu_phrMw94IbL_w6Y70aRhUyRt7aB5CWbyejyXmU8wmag%2CAGkb-H98BZoKFBRgbchGyb6X9kaoSavuhA51WAcn4DNR49RugZccL5fElEU&pvsid=3058147525929120&pem=755&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&rx=0&eae=0&fc=896&brdim=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C1920%2C0%2C1920%2C1160%2C1920%2C1089&vis=1&rsz=o%7Co%7CoeE%7C&abl=NS&pfx=0&fu=8192&bc=31&jar=2020-11-20-14&ifi=11&uci=a!b&fsb=1&xpc=WQkDzwWtJ5&p=https%3A//www.timesofisrael.com&dtd=13
Since he entered the political fold, Soros has been the subject of conspiracy theories and intense criticism. In 2011, when the Occupy Wall Street protests broke out in the United States, he was falsely accused of funding the movement against growing economic inequality in America.
Rabbi Jack Moline, president of the Interfaith Alliance, said that Soros has the unique blend of ingredients to have become the subject of anti-Semitic tropes.
“I think you would need an entire graduate degree in the history of the Jews and their relationship with other nations to pluck out all of the various boxes that he ticks off just by being who he is: He’s a man with liberal, even socialist, politics; he’s fabulously wealthy; he’s reclusive; he’s European by origin, which puts him on the outside of the Hungarian culture he was in because he’s Jewish; and it puts him on the outside of the ‘true Americans’ in this country,” Moline told The Times of Israel. “He has it all.”
Rabbi Jack Moline (photo credit: YouTube/screenshot)
There is no secret to why Soros is hated by so many, he added. “He elects to support political causes that rile people with whom he disagrees,” said Moline. “I don’t think there’s some magic formula here. It’s just, he’s an easy target.”
But that’s not the only reason, Moline suggested. Soros has become an instrument used by bigots to instill fear in the hearts of their populist followings. He is playing a role that other Jews have invariably played throughout the course of history. In some ways, he is just the latest iteration.
“The Rothschild family has been subjected to this since they established themselves as merchants in Europe,” Moline said. “I think if you looked at a lot of the rhetoric that was aimed at them by Europe’s non-Jewish elite, you would see that they were being blamed for many of the same things in the political context that Soros is being blamed for now.”
So why him?
On some level, it is a simple equation: those on the left don’t like big donors for the right, while those on the right don’t like big donors for the left.
“He’s this guy who funds left-wing causes and funds Democrats. For the most part, criticisms have been mostly for [him] doing that,” said Jonathan Tobin. “Republicans don’t like him because he funds Democrats. It’s really no different from the way Democrats don’t like Republican fundraisers.”
Tobin, a conservative columnist who frequently writes for the National Review and is editor in chief of the Jewish News Syndicate, argued that Soros is to the right what GOP mega donors are to the left.
Sheldon Adelson at the inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“When I look at some of the ways that conservative Republicans talk about Soros, it’s kind of the mirror image of the way Democrats have been talking about the Koch brothers for years,” Tobin said. “Or Sheldon Adelson.”
But while the Kochs and megadonor Adelson are the subjects of intense criticisms from the left, they are not often targeted with unfounded theories that they are fomenting instability or controlling major governmental or financial institutions
“A person who promotes a Soros conspiracy theory may not intend to promulgate anti-Semitism, but Soros’s Jewish identity is so well-known that in many cases it is hard not to infer that meaning,” said the ADL’s Tuchman.Screenshot of a cartoon, featuring George Soros, posted by Yair Netanyahu, son of Israel’s prime minister, September 8, 2017. (Facebook)
“These tropes have become all too common in statements by individuals, including well-known national and local politicians, who have cast Soros as the behind-the-scenes funder of protests, and the ringleader of opposition to the Trump administration’s agenda,” he added.
“Even if no anti-Semitic insinuation is intended, casting a Jewish individual as a puppet master who manipulates national events for malign purposes has the effect of mainstreaming an anti-Semitic trope and giving support, however unwitting, to bona fide anti-Semites and extremists who disseminate these ideas knowingly and with malice.”
George Soros speaks at the Festival of Economics in Trento, Italy in 2012. (Wikimedia Commons, Niccolò Caranti, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Tobin, for his part, said that there was a threshold for when denouncing Soros can veer from healthy to toxic. “If you’re not calling him out as a Jew, and you’re just criticizing him because you perceive him as being behind the protestors related to the Kavanaugh confirmation or because he’s funding Democratic candidates, that’s fair game,” he said. “That’s the dividing line.”
When it comes to Soros’s place within the Jewish community, Moline noted another, but different dynamic that Soros shares with Adelson.
“There’s always been a love-hate relationship that the Jews have had with the wealthy in their own community,” he said. “When they’re generous for the right causes, they’re lauded, and when they’re generous for the wrong causes, they’re condemned. Sheldon Adelson is the same way. The people who praise him for Birthright often condemn him for his involvement with the Republican Party.”
But Soros fills such a unique set of check boxes, he has become the bogeyman for more than one corner of the American public. That those corners are often in conflict is evidence, Moline suggested, that the controversies surrounding Soros are often not so much about Soros himself.
“I think that most people who criticize George Soros don’t know very much about him,” Moline said. “Whether it is non-Jews criticizing him as a Jew or whether it is Jews criticizing him as a liberal, it says more about the person doing the criticism than it does about the person they’re criticizing.”
The Ten Commandments Project 