Why is "clever with money" a Jew-hating slur? Well it's not about the "clever" part, though I would prefer the less pejorative-sounding "expert". It's about the "money", stupid.
… and, they are clever with money ← Image via Wikipedia
Read related » Tracking “Jewish Money”
[Reading this related article in its entirety is recommended.]
“It’s not often that bald-faced, unashamed anti-Semitism is advertised by supposedly mainstream politicos. But these are no ordinary times. […] Jewish money. Gosh, even Walt and Mearsheimer are smart enough to use the “Israel lobby” rather than “Jewish money” to incite the public. [Mike McMahon’s campaign spokesman Jennifer] Nelson immediately began back-peddling, confessing that “she did not know exactly how the finance team knew who was Jewish and who was not,” and bizarrely arguing that “I don’t think ethnicity matters.” […] America is not Europe and anti-Semitism is not yet fashionable or commonplace in “polite” company. (At least Nelson was canned rather than lionized and [Helen] Thomas was finally put out to pasture.) But what was unheard of a few years ago is now popping up with alarming frequency. Peddlers of virulent anti-Semitism now appear in mainstream publications and their arguments are entertained as legitimate. That should concern us all.”
— JENNIFER RUBIN - 07.30.2010 (commentarymagazine.com)
Over the course of the Diaspora, Jews were able to find refuge only in lands where their presence was barely tolerated. In Europe such tolerance was primarily based on the Christian dilemma posed by the universal need for money lending (the forerunner of modern banking, which is indispensable to all modern economies) despite the proscription of it (perceived to be equivalent to usury) as a Christian sin. Thus, money lending became one of the few occupations available to Jews in their host countries. And, as is their wont, they saw it as a lifeline to ultimate survival in a ubiquitously hostile environment. They became expert (read "clever") at it, by necessity.
Perhaps, dear reader, you are more familiar with the plaint, "They are willing to do the work that Americans won't do", usually in reference to both legal and illegal aliens. Though the circumstances underlying American unwillingness to do certain necessary tasks, especially at harvest time, has more to do with an aversion for menial labor rather than religious-based proscription (though I must admit that, personally, I refuse to do housecleaning because it is against my religion), this is rather like the derogatory association of Jews with money-lending, and, by extension, financial success.
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| Aztec ritual human sacrifice |
← Image via Wikipedia
Arguably, one of Judaism's greatest cultural contributions was the invention of the weekend, AKA the Sabbath. By including it with the other nine Commandments, Moses institutionalized not only the concept of a day of respite from monotonous drudgery but also the more subtle, albeit much more far reaching concept of a (hopefully better) future.
But another Jewish innovation was the concept of scapegoating, which those who would assign a humanistic interpretation to (as opposed to what the righteous believers accept on faith alone) was intended to replace the more ancient barbaric pagan-concept of ritual human sacrifice. It is ironic (but possibly intentionally so) that Jew-haters have perverted the concept of scapegoating into the principal tool of persecution against the very people who invented the originally humane concept.
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