Civilization and the Jews
I remember watching a documentary about Jewish heritage on KCET when I was a teenager. That documentary might be Heritage—Civilization and the Jews. What I came away with was the impression that it is a matter of pride for the world to know that what we now call finance and banking owes a great deal to Jewish people. In fact, my impression is that the warlords of old Europe and their blood relatives were too illiterate and undereducated to manage the fruits of their ingenious brutality. It follows that a fragile, ‘symbiotic’ relationship was developed between Jewish people and the people classical Romans would casually call barbarians. I use the word ‘fragile’ deliberately to show my respect for the thousands of years of European Jewish persecution.
Fast forward to the furor surrounding Dr. Leonard Jeffries, his assertion that the old rich of Jewish decent were key players in financing and administering the slave trade that destroyed Africa. I would like to read the sophisticated explanation for the simple question, ‘How can wealthy Jewish financiers not be involved in the slave trade, when these Jews are credited for their vital contributions to the professional movement of capital in Europe?’ Did all of these Jewish people of the world of European finance suddenly leave this world when the African slave trade started?
We here at kintespace.com have to deal with this issue since we have published a sound recording by Dr. Leonard Jeffries in “Doctoral Warriors for the African Mind.” I thought it would be easy to locate signs of Jewish pride as it relates to the history of medieval and modern finance. The following table summarizes how it is not so easy:
| Joseph Jacobs at jewishencyclopedia.com | Joseph Jacobs, [his article on finance](http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=142&letter=F), should have been the evidence for my open and shut case for the Jewish pride I thought I saw in a documentary on KCET. No. But what stands out is, “There is no evidence that Jewish financiers of one country, or of all countries, are in any sense combined to form one fund for financial operations. On the contrary, Jewish firms compete very keenly with one another, and the more ambitious among the smaller firms are always combining to divert business from the larger and older institutions.” |
| Werner Sombart | [Werner Sombart](http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/sombart.htm), author of [*Jews and Modern Capitalism*](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0878558373/thekintespacec00A/ "Buy this book at Amazon.com"), does provide the evidence for my little open and shut case. He writes, “Strictly speaking the task I had set myself has now been completed. I have tried to show the importance of the Jews in modern economic life in all its aspects.” Unfortunately I am not aware that Werner Sombart is Jewish and I have read suggestions that Hitler’s Nazis approve of his work.
In the same manner that any work about Africa not written by an African with most of her or his dominant genes intact and representing, cannot be ‘trusted,’ my primitive sense of justice prevents me from fully trusting the work of Werner Sombart. |
| Marvin Lowenthal | Marvin Lowenthal’s book [*The Jews of Germany: A Story of Sixteen Centuries*](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0846214695/thekintespacec00A/ "Buy this book at Amazon.com") was cited by Dr. Leonard Jeffries. I *still* need to know that Marvin Lowenthal is Jewish. There is nothing like the real soul talking about their soul. I’m still looking into this… |