Antisemitism as philosemitism: The New York Times describes the Jews of Europe, 1873 ~ EoZ

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Antisemitism as philosemitism: The New York Times describes the Jews of Europe, 1873

This is from the top headline article in the New York Times of July 5, 1873, 150 years ago, in a dispatch from Vienna from a nameless "special correspondent."

The Press is much controlled by the Jews, who are wealthy, intelligent, and ambitious.

They have not invented anything. I speak, certainly, without reference to the very old times when they may have invented a great deal. It is incontestable, however, that they exhibit extraordinary aptitude in utilizing the inventions of others. In some places in this slow old Europe of ours, they have run at a belle idée as a pike rushes.at a spinning minnow and carries it clear off to gorge at discretion all alone.

The telegraph, for instance. Baron Reuter furnishes the news of the world to all the English papers and to many of the foreign journals. Wolff provides the news of Central Europe. These are quite of Israel. Then there is the Agence Havas, which may be considered as much inspired, if not owned, by the same great people. Europe is under these thumbs.

And in these days news is money. And now money often means news—in war it is indeed almost identical, and no people understand that better than the parsimonious Prussians who lavished gold for intelligence.

Here in Vienna, as in other places, the Press is largely worked, owned, written, and largely influenced by Jews. They have appreciated the importance of holding the end of such a lever in their hands, :and have not neglected its use.

Their general sympathies are opposed to Roman Catholicism which is aggressive, bat they do not love the Greek Church. They are distracted somewhat between their democratic and liberal principles and the effect which would be produced on ancient States by a vigorous application of them.

Certainly they have reason to be proud of their race, which, despite the heavenly malediction and the hate of Christendom, has now taken possession of so much of the goods of this world without striking a blow in battle, or sustaining the burdens of national life.

In music, in money-making, in politics they play a great part. A Jew owns the purest vintages, the best cigars, and some of the finest horses in the world, not to speak of paintings, statuary, jewels, and china, and as the civilization of the world advances so does the Jew come to the front, not of the combat, but of the gleaners who gather the fruits of victory.

In Vienna there are more Jews than crossed the Jordan with Joshua to smite the tribes of Canaan. In the Austrian Empire there are as many Jews as there were in Judea in the time of Titus—far more than there were in the captivity.

While the reporter is bending over backwards to praise Jews, his praise is indistinguishable from the slanders of the antisemites. The Jews are parasites who do not directly contribute to society; they are opportunistic money makers, they control the news media and tilt reporting to be favorable and profitable to them, they all have the same opinions and act as a bloc for their own welfare. They are rich, and their influence is only growing.

Notably, Baron Paul Reuter was born Jewish and converted to Christianity. In this article, he is still "of Israel" and considered a Jew with the same opinions as all other Jews.

This section on Jews was reproduced in a number of other newspapers in the following weeks as stand-alone articles.

This essay was written six years before Wilhelm Marr - who coined the term "anti-semite" - wrote his first antisemitic publication, The Victory of Judaism over Germandom. Amazingly (or not,) Marr's essay not only echoes the same themes as the NYT in 1873, but which also claims seeming admiration for the Jews:

Without a shred of irony, I publicly proclaim the world-historical triumph of Jewry, the news of a lost battle, the victory of the enemy without a single excuse for the stricken army.

I should like to believe that such candor deserves something better than the zealous Jewish accents of the newspapers.

It is no ostentatious prophecy but a deeply felt conviction when I say that no more than four generations shall pass before the Jews usurp absolutely every office of state, including the very highest.

Yes, Jewry shall raise Germany to a world power and make it the New Palestine of Europe.

It won't come about by violent revolution but by the voice of the people itself, as soon as German society has reached that highest level of social bankruptcy and perplexity toward which we are rushing headlong.

Don't blame Jewry for this.

Our Germanic element has shown itself culturally and historically powerless, incapable of achievement, before alien domination. This is a fact, a raw, pitiless fact. State, church, Catholicism, Protestantism, credo, and dogma must bow before the Jewish Areopagus, the daily press.

Dear reader, stop gnashing your teeth in rage! [You have no right to do so.] Alien domination has been forced upon us. For 1800 years the fight against Jewish domination has lasted. The Semitic race has borne indescribable [external] suffering. You have roughly mishandled them, but rarely have you combated them spiritually. From feeble beginnings Jewry has grown beyond you. It has corrupted all society with its views. It has driven out any kind of idealism, possesses the controlling position in commerce, infiltrates increasingly into state offices, rules the theater, constitutes a sociopolitical phalanx, and finally has left you little more than the hard manual labor that it always despised. It has reduced talent to rattling superficial finesse, has made that procuress, advertising, into a goddess of public opinion. In short, Jewry lords it over you today.

Are we capable of sacrifice? Have we even succeeded in creating a single, nonpartisan anti-Jewish newspaper? Are not even our housewife clubs and similar associations under Jewish patrons who combine business with pleasure for their own profit? Does not Jewry flow into all the pores of our life?

You may gnash your teeth about Germanic apathy. I bow down in amazed admiration before this Semitic race that has set its foot upon our necks. Having gathered up the last trace of human energy, I am resigned to enter into Jewish slavery, not to surrender or ask for quarter but only to die as peacefully as possible.

There is little difference in tone nor in substance between the New York Times and Wilhelm Marr, even though one was ostensibly praising Jews and the other warning against them.

Sometimes, philosemitism is just antisemitism seen through a slightly different lens.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!