Ruling class Jews

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Counterpunch, October 24, 2003

The Demographics of American Jews
"My People are American. My Time is Today."
By LENNI BRENNER

(clip)

In 1991, I interviewed Harold Seneker, then the editor of the Forbes 400
list of the richest Americans, for an article in The Nation. I told him
that I found Jews, 2.2% of the population, to be about 25% of the 400.
He told me that he thought this a success story, both for American
capitalism and for the Jews, and that he wanted to write a story on it.
But Forbes wouldn't let him. The then publisher had gone thru the Hitler
era, when talking about Jewish money was an anti-Semitic specialty.

This mentality is still common on the left as well, and it is wide
spread among elderly Jews. Forbes, much of the left, and old Jews share
what must be called a 'folk Marxist' mentality. Despite the differences
in their politics, they all believe that history repeats itself. Someday
there is going to be another 1929 Depression. The capitalists will, once
again, call up central casting and get another Hitler to smash the left.

This is fantasy. Its a projection of the past, and Germany's past at
that, into America's future. In reality, journalists constantly turn out
articles for Zionist publications about how Jewish campaign contributors
play a major role in funding both parties and, very rarely, the topic is
touched on in the mainstream media. "The Political Future of American
Jews," a1985 American Jewish Congress pamphlet by Seymour Martin Lipset
and Earl Raab, declared that "While there have been few reliable
statistics on the subject -- and some reluctance to gather any -- the
journalistic and anecdotal evidence is overwhelming that more than a
majority of Democratic funds on a national level, and as much as a
quarter of Republican funds have come from Jewish sources." They were
referring to private contributions, as was an article in the 1/5/93 NY
Times announcing that "Jews contributed about 60 percent of Mr.
Clinton's noninstitutional campaign funds."

My estimate is that 84 of the latest 400 are Jews. The magazine doesn't
list religious affiliations unless the person involved is distinctive in
giving to religious charities, etc. And not all of the Jews are
pro-Zionists. Some listees are among the educated disaffiliated we are
discussing. But Zionist money is prodigious. James Tisch, chair of the
Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations isn't on the
list, altho he is CEO of Loews Corp., listed on the Fortune 500 list.
But daddy, Laurence, is, at $2 billion, and uncle Preston is worth $2.3
billion. His predecessors at the Conference were Ronald Lauder, $1.8
billion, and Mort Zuckerman, who struggles along with a penny ante $1.2
billion. Chaim Sabon, $1.7 billion, is a University of California
regent. Mayhaps he got the job because he gave the Democrats the largest
campaign contribution in American history?

full: http://www.counterpunch.org/brenner10242003.html

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