If there is hope, it lies with unprivileged American Jews

The Jewish community is in denial that it has a class system, but Theodor Herzl was not, and we should heed his warning today.

As I’ve written many times before, the Jewish community is, for the most part, in denial of the fact that it has a class system. But like all communities, it does. Class systems are inescapable, and the Jews have one just like everybody else.

Contrary to stereotype, there are Jews spread throughout all economic strata, from the privileged upper classes to the lower-middle class and, surprisingly to some, the poor.

My origins lie in the lower-middle class, with a family that simply never had enough money. As a result, I have always been keenly aware of this class system. Not only aware but consistently astounded by the community’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge it exists.

This denial, however, is somewhat unique to America. In Israel, France, and other countries, the class system is openly acknowledged, though often defined according to the Ashkenazi-Sephardi and right-left divides.

Nonetheless, these divides are often fundamentally economic in origin, and this is reflected in politics, culture, and social life. Only in America are they denied in their entirety.

This denial may be, in some ways, a result of American Jews’ ambivalent relationship with Zionism—especially that of the upper classes—because a class analysis of the Jewish community was a major part of the movement and drove much of its initial political activity.

Theodor Herzl himself was troubled by the issue of the Jewish class system throughout his career. He was well aware of the fact that, among prosperous and assimilated Central European Jews—of which he was one—Zionism was usually regarded as either insane or laughable.

But Herzl also knew where the hope lay: With the massive constituency of impoverished and oppressed Eastern European Jews who were embracing Zionism with the same passion as they embraced socialism or religious Orthodoxy. Herzl saw himself, ultimately, as a man of the poor.

Herzl fought very hard to awaken the consciousness of the privileged Jews of his time. He saw antisemitism, rightly, as a threat to all Jews regardless of class, and sought to shock the Jewish upper classes into awareness of this fact—sadly, without much success.

At one point, Herzl wrote:

I shall content myself with putting the following questions to the Jews: Is it not true that, in countries where we live in perceptible numbers, the position of Jewish lawyers, doctors, technicians, teachers, and employees of all descriptions becomes daily more intolerable? Is it not true, that the Jewish middle classes are seriously threatened? Is it not true, that the passions of the mob are incited against our wealthy people? Is it not true, that our poor endure greater sufferings than any other proletariat? I think that this external pressure makes itself felt everywhere. In our economically upper classes it causes discomfort, in our middle classes continual and grave anxieties, in our lower classes absolute despair.

The extent to which this analysis could be applied to today’s American Jewish community is, frankly, chilling.

Among the privileged Jewish upper classes, the push to expel them from universities, cultural institutions, and politics continues apace. The middle classes are becoming targets of direct antisemitic violence, undermining their sense of security, while elite antisemitism blocks their capacity for upward mobility.

As for the Jewish poor, they are simply told that they do not exist. Yet they are the most vulnerable targets and, thus, the most aware of the growing threat and the degree to which they have been left helpless by their privileged brethren’s abandonment. It is not impossible that, as the situation worsens, they will make Aliyah in significant numbers.

American Jews ought to hope they do not, because, as George Orwell wrote in 1984: “If there was hope, it must lie in the proles.”

It is the Jewish lower-middle and lower classes who are awake to the gravity of the situation and, therefore, the most likely to resist if given the proper means and leadership. If, as I believe, active self-defense is the only way to defeat today’s neo-antisemites, then it is the unprivileged Jews, religious and secular, who must lead the way. Perhaps, in doing so, they can awaken the privileged Jews to their plight and rouse them to resistance as well.

At the moment, however, this is difficult because the unprivileged Jews do not understand their power.

As Orwell wrote: “The proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They need only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose, they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it.”

In other words, if they can develop a sense of class solidarity, the American Jewish lower classes can slough off their complacent upper classes and ineffective elite leadership. If properly organized for self-defense, they could constitute a formidable force, since lower classes are often, in Eric Hoffer’s words, “reckless, stubborn, and resourceful.”

The hope lies in the fact that, if only out of necessity, the Jewish lower classes are usually the least assimilated among Diaspora Jews and therefore have the strongest Jewish identity—especially the religious among them. This gives them the capacity for that essential solidarity of which their privileged brethren are currently incapable.

The Jewish lower classes see the danger, but do not yet know what to do about it. The key to effective resistance to neo-antisemitism is to give them something to do about it. Only thus can they blow neo-antisemitism to pieces, and it is this, above all, that must be done if the American Jewish community is to survive.