Trudy Gold
Jews and Revolution

Trudy Gold | Jews and Revolution | 04.27.22

- Well, good evening everyone from gruesome London, and Joan Lessing has just reminded us that in Israel it is Holocaust Memorial Day. So obviously our thoughts must go in that direction. Now, my session. The 7:30 session with Judge Dennis Davis and Judge Dennis Davis again tomorrow is going to be looking at the non-Jewish Jew. We decided that before we can really begin an in depth, and remember we’re spending the next three months on Eastern Europe, we felt that we should address this very, very big issue of Jews and the Left, and Jews of Revolution. And let me say that the one of the reasons we decided to do an in-depth on Eastern Europe, is for those of you who are Jewish listening, I would take a bet that three quarters of you, your lineage will actually go back to Eastern Europe. And the area we’re going to be looking at, we’re going to look… And of course, as you all know from the terrible tragedy in Ukraine, how the borders change and all the infighting, well, it actually goes all the way back a thousand of years. And William is going to start us off next Monday on Kievan Rus’.

So basically that is to… It’s just come up on our… It’s just come up on the spell as Kievan Neurosis. I love our spell. But anyway, Jews and Revolution. I’m going to begin with a very famous comment of Elias Canetti, which you’ve heard before. “No people to more difficult to understand than the Jews because the question has to be asked. How was it? That the majority of the leadership of the socialist and later communist parties from country, to country, to country were people of Jewish birth? It is an absolutely extraordinary phenomenon, or is it? Step back. Jews absolutely exploded into the modern world, this tiny people.” You know, in 1939, there were only 18 million Jews in the world, a small percentage of the population. We’ve discussed this before, it was almost as though the modern world was made for them. This people with a dream of education, this people that had to be mobile, that had to live on their wits from country to country, with the modern world, they exploded into practically every new branch of industry and commerce. And also, they were the outsider group. However hard they tried, they were the outsider group. And perhaps it’s always the outsider who is best in the position to look at it.

What made the Jews such catalyst for train change? Now, obviously Jews did not invent socialism. And I want to make this absolutely clear, it’s in no sense invented by Jews. Jews in the ninth… But Jews in 19th century, Germany, for example, let’s take the figure of Moses Hess. Moses Hess was the first German communist. And in many ways his life, kind of sets the scene. Moses Hess was born in the Rhineland, very much like Karl Marx. He was one of those characters whose family are liberated. And then of course, when Napoleon is defeated, all the rights are taken away. And many Jews decide that the modern world was worth having. His father though, was very religious and he went to live with his Talmudik grandfather, and he had a very strong Jewish education. We don’t know that much about his early life. He goes to the University of Bonn where he meets up with Karl Marx and other young followers of Hegel. And his first book, is a book called “A History of Mankind” by a Disciple of Spinoza.

Now, Dennis is going to be talking about Spinoza, either tonight or tomorrow. And of course, who was Spinoza? The Jew who went and inverted commerce beyond the limits of Judaism. Now, what happens to to Moses Hess is that he breaks away from the Jewish tradition. He takes the Marx idea on revolution… He takes the Marx idea on religion. He no longer sees himself as a Jew. Ironically, in later life, he becomes aware of the anti-Semitism and he coined a very interesting phrase. “The Germans hate the Jews, not because of their peculiar religion, but because of their peculiar noses.” He saw that it was actually race and not religion. Now what happens to Moses Hess, he never desserts the socialist movement, but he writes a book called “Rome and Jerusalem,” which is modern Rome, a modern Jerusalem. When he died, he was buried in Cologne. “Here lies, Moses Hess, the founding father of German social democracy.”

What then happens is his body is re-interred and he lies where? He lies in Kibbutz, Degania along with many of the other founding fathers of socialism. So, Moses Hess. Marx, so obviously, I’m going to come onto in a minute. He was the creator of scientific socialism. And really the beginnings of the international communist movement. Ferdinand Lassalle, another German Jew, a brilliant orator, a lawyer. He was the man who created German social democracy. He made it the biggest working class party in Europe. Eduard Bernstein was the theorist of the reforming wing of German socialism. Paul Singer was chairman of German socialist party congresses. Rosa Luxemburg, Hugo Haas, Otto Landsberg were all leaders of post-revolutionary socialism in Germany, in Munich. And I’ll come onto all these characters later on.

Kurt Eisner, Gustav Landauer, Ernst Toller, Eugene Levine, the leaders of Austrian Marxism before 1914 and in interwar period, including the founder of the Social Democratic Party, Victor Adler and his son Friedrich Adler. And also it’s true of Hungary, it’s true of Poland. This is an observation from Robert Nichols, in his classic study of 1914, Pre-European workers movements. In many countries in Russia and Romania for instance, but above all in Hungary and Poland. The leadership of the working class parties are almost exclusively in the hands of Jews, as is plainly apparent from an examination of the personality of the delegates in the international congresses. And he goes on to say, “Jews have unquestionably been a pioneering catalyst within modern social and revolutionary movements.” Now this is another explanation by an ex-Marxis, a man called Nicolas Berdyaev. The most important aspect of Marx’s teaching concerns the Proletariat’s Messianic vocation. Is the fact that he applied to the proletariat, the characteristic of God’s chosen people.

Now this is written by modern Jew. “Marx was a Jew. He had abandoned the faith of his fathers, but the messianic expectation of Israel remained in his subconscious. We need a psychologist again here, don’t we? The subconscious is always stronger than the conscience. And for him, the new proletariat is the new Israel. God’s chosen people. The liberator and builder of an earthly kingdom that is to come.” His proletarian communism is a secular form, it’s an idea with religious fervour. He was to have the very narrow of the communist religion, the very marrow of the communist religion. For a messianic consciousness is surely always of ancient Hebrew origin. Now this is absolutely fascinating. What Berdyaev is saying, is that even Jews who leave their Judaism behind, within them is this deep rooted tradition of social justice. And I think something else about Judaism, certainly if you turn to the prophetic tradition of Judaism, which Dennis is going to talk about tonight, is of course, what?

It’s of course, the notion of social justice. All you have to do is go back to the earliest of the prophets. It’s in all the prophets. Think about Amos. I’ve always loved “The Book of Amos.” He screams that Israel will be destroyed because you grind the poor, you sell the needy for a pair of shoes. He talks about the fat kind of Bashan, who lull on silk and cushions, and destroyed the poor. So it’s all about social justice. And something else about, I think being a Jew. At its finest, everyone is responsible for their own actions before the Almighty. We do not have the hierarchy. Now obviously, that is often changed and perverted, but the in theory, Rabbis are merely teachers that what’s the word means, there is no hierarchy. So consequently, this whole notion of social responsibility. And also, to an extent communal responsibility is very strong. Now, according to Berdyaev, he goes on to say, “Jewish messianism is a component of Marxism and it becomes the concrete struggle for social justice.”

Now, let’s be careful here. I’m talking about the theory and not the practise. Post, of course, post 1917 when we… And we’ve spent quite a lot of time looking at various revolutions in Hungary and in Austria, they went terribly bad and into bloodshed. I’m talking about the idealistic theory, maybe Marxism like, no, like any other creed, once it comes into practise, it falls into disrepute. And please don’t forget, there were other Jews looking for socialist solutions within the Jewish Court. Within the Jewish World. Look, these international Jews from country to country, they’d all broken away from their Jewish roots. They are marginal, they are alienated. But don’t forget that within the Jewish tradition you had the Bund which had far more adherence than did revolutionary Jews. What did they want? They wanted social justice. It begins in Vilna, really Jewish workers striking against Jewish bosses. And the Bund, what they wanted to do in the end is to break down the evil Zionist regime, but what they wanted was Jewish autonomy within the Russian Empire.

They were Jews. They propagated Yiddish culture, Yiddish theatre. Later on, Yiddish cinema. And please don’t forget the great renaissance of Yiddish literature within the Bund. And think about Zionism itself, socialist Zionism. A year after Herzl wrote “Der Judenstaat,” Nachman Syrkin wrote “The Socialist Jewish State,” and perhaps the early kibbutz sin were the perfect example of Marxism in action. But most of the young Jewish socialists in Israel, think in Palestine and later Israel, they were very, very left-wing. And they had of course, common cause with many of the Jews throughout Europe. And some of them also threw away their religion. It’s fascinating because if you look at The Second Aliyah, for example, they were atheistic. They had their very interesting ideas and it took the great Rav Kook, who of course, was the chief rabbi of the mandate. What did he say? “They are God’s instruments, but they don’t know it.”

So within the Jewish tradition in modernity, there is this turning towards the left. And I would go as far as to say that up until the ‘60s, Jews tended to be liberal left. Certainly if one looks at England, the Labour Party, the majority of Jews always voted for the Labour party. In America, the majority of Jews were always Democrats. I’m talking about up to about 20 years after the birth of Israel. Today of course, and this is a very dangerous thread. The left has become… In many ways the extreme left has become very anti-Israel. And please remember the quote of Jonathan Sacks’s. “First they hated our religion, then our race, and then our nation.”

Now, I want to go on and now I’m going to be quoting from Robert Wistrich because I decided I would… For a presentation like this, I’m going to look at some of the great scholarship on it. “Radical Jews like Hyena, Hess and Marx supported Jewish emancipation in Germany as a progressive step on the road to liberalising the Prussian Christian State and transforming Germany into a modern secular society.” And then this is Wistrich. “They were themselves marginal men in transition between different cultures and social groups. Already alienated from their traditional identity, but yet not integrated into gentile society. Their concerns were no longer related to their own community.” Marx in his text of 1844, wanted the digitalization of society, of the Jews. And I’m going to talk about that in a minute.

At the same time, as he wanted the abolition of a bourgeois society. The other problem was, that many of these marginalised Jews are also going to identify Jews with capitalism. For gentile socialists like Fourier, Gronlund, Toussenel, the prominence of international Jewish bankers in the economy, in railway building, government loans begins the provoking of an extremely hostile reaction. So from gentile socialists, they’re looking at Jews in the modern economy. And this is the tragedy. Look, let’s be real about this. The majority of Jews in the end of the 19th century are living in Eastern Europe and they are dirt poor, okay? They are dirt poor. However, from country to country, be it Britain, France, Germany, the Habsburg Empire, you have a small proportion of Jews who are taking modernity by its throat and are pushing society forward. I mean, I’ve spent a lot of time with you looking at Jewish employment patterns in the modern world.

The fact that, you know, modern banking. Not invented by Jews, but the majority of those who created the modern banks were Jewish. If you look at department stores, if you look at advertising, if you look at self-service restaurants. More important, even the development of the railways. You have Jewish capital involved in it. And for socialists, you have this notion that Jews then are capitalists and that is going to lead to characters like Marx turning violently against the Jews because it’s obvious that gifted individuals within a minority, they are often exposed to self-hatred. And a character like Marx, who we know he was teased at school, he was called them more. He had a very dark complexion. Even though he had been converted, he was a very bitter kind of character. And he couldn’t… I think he would’ve had a real problem with the alienation.

Anyway, before we get onto Marx, and I suppose we can put him on the screen now, if you don’t mind, Judi. Yeah. I’m going to read one or two other important writers on the Jewish issue. This is IG11. One of the paradoxes of Jewish fate is undoubtedly the fact that the same rationalism, that was one of the causes of the outstanding role in the development of capitalism was also the cause of their no less outstanding participation in the movements directed against capitalism and the capitalist order. And I had to throw in Vladimir Jabotinsky here. He… Remember comes from Odessa. He and Trotsky have almost the same birth. Jabotinsky is born in 1880, dies in 1940. Trotsky born in 1879, dies in 1940.

In many ways, very similar personalities, but completely different roles. And this is what Jabotinsky said in 1905, “A revolution of someone else’s nation is not worth the blood of old men, women and children.” He’s talking about… 'Cause you’ve got to remember, think of a town like Odessa, a third Jewish, all these young intellectuals, they’re all fighting for the same souls. The souls of the Jews. Marxism, Socialist, Zionism, Bundism, and then of course a character like Jabontinsky. He’s saying, no one’s blood is worth it. And later on, Martov, who was such an important figure in Stalinsk, Russia, he wrote an autobiography. And this is what he says about Jews in the Russian Revolution. Almost all the Mensheviks were Jews, even amongst the Bolsheviks, amongst the leaders, there were many Jews. Generally Jews are the most oppositional nation, oppositional. Is this anything to do with the Talmudic tradition of learning?

But they were inclined to support the Mensheviks. There is an explanation. Oppositional and revolutionary elements formed a higher percentage amongst Jews than Russians. Insulted, injured, oppressed. They were more versatile, they penetrated everywhere, so to speak. They were more active than the Russians.“ And interesting, when Herzl went to Russia to try and persuade the Russians government, the anti-Semitic Russian government to put pressure on the Turks to help him create a homeland, he asked Devitt, who was the foreign minister. Why 50% of revolution is Jews? And Devitt said, I think the 40s in our government, the Jews are too oppressed. Anyway, characters like Heiner, wonderful, wonderful Heiner. He said, "Moses remember created a nation that was to defy the centuries, a great eternal people, the people of God who could serve as a model for humanity.”

Heiner was a socialist, he when he was living in Paris, and he himself felt that within this notion was very much within the tradition of social justice. Now going back to Moses Hess, why did Hess moderate his views? My own experience, not only amongst opponents, but also amongst my own party comrades, have worn out the fact that in every personal controversy they make use of the Hep-Hep weapon. Now, back in 1819, there’d been a series of anti-Jewish riots, the Hep-Hep riots, “Hierosolyma est perdita.” Next time you say hip hip hooray at a birthday party, it’s actually the battle cry of the crusaders. I have decided to take this… Make this even more effective by adopting my Old Testament name of Moses. I only do regret that my name is not Itzik, okay. One young executive of the Russian Revolutionary people’s party, however, managed to excuse the polygamist. This is the other side.

So he’s people’s will, extreme Anarchist socialist. And he said he’s got a problem with the Jews, our estrangement from the culture… It’s the estrangement of the culture of the Russian Jews and the negative assessment of their religious and bourgeois leaders. Regarding the Jewish lower classes, we thought that liberalism of the whole of Russia will bring along the liberation of all nations living there. One has to admit that the Russian literature has installed in us a view that Jew was not a nation but a parasitic class. And this was a statement, the kike curses, the peasant cheeks cheats him and drinks his blood. The kikes make life unbearable. This was a folk tale, a Russian broke tale. So. I want to now talk a little about what led the socialist and communist Jews to react against their own religion. And this has led to…

In fact, if you want to trace anti-Semitism on the left today, much of it comes from this. Now this is a mayday orator of 1891. This is a young Jewish socialist. “We, Jews repudiate our national holidays and fantasies which are useless for human society. We link ourselves with the armies of socialism and adopt their holidays. Our holidays, which have inherited from our ancestors, will vanish together with the old system. The Torah of socialism will not descend from heaven of Sinai in thunder and lightning and the Messiah will not come riding on a white horse.” They believed that… You see, what they believed was that Jewish problem would cease to exist once they created this international world of socialism. Now let’s talk a little bit about Marx, because Marx was a self-hating Jew. I don’t use that phrase likely, by the way.

And I’m going to… And I don’t have to go into his biography. I mean it’s known to all of you. He lived much of his life in England. He came over in 1849, because of the revolutions of '48. And there was a price on his head and he finished up living in London much of his life. He was always in debt. He was a pretty unpleasant character on a personal level. But what I’m interested, and of course, he was a genius. What is fascinating about Marx, is that he applied for British citizenship when Benjamin Israeli was prime minister. Of course, they never met and he was turned down because he was not loyal to his own king.

Anyway, this is his response to Bruno Bauer on the Jewish question. “Let us observe the real worldly Jew, not the Shabbat Jew, but the everyday Jew. Let us not look for the mystery of the Jew in his religion. Let us look at the mystery of the religion in the actual Jew. What is the worldly basis of Judaism? Practical necessity and selfishness? What is the worldly culture of the Jew? Commerce. What is his worldly God? Money. Money is the jealous God of Israel before whom no other gods endure. Money debates all gods of men and transforms them into commodities. Money is the common value of all things. It robbed the whole universe, the world of men, of nature, of their specific value. Money is the essence of man’s labour and existence and alienates him from other men. And this alien rules him and he adores it.”

I mean that’s about as hard as it gets, isn’t it? And this is an article that he wrote on a Russian loan. “Thus we find…” This is in 1856. “Thus we find every tyrant backed by a Jew as is every pope by a Jesuit. In truth, the cravings of oppressors will be hopeless. And the practicality of war out of the question, if there was not an army of Jesuits to smother thought and a handful of Jews to ransack prophets and pockets.” So Marx, what he’s doing with his anti-Semitism, he’s secularising it into anti-Capitalism. Now, one of the men who was always bailing Karl Marx out, was Ferdinand Lassalle, the brilliant German lawyer and founder of German social democracy. And he’s so ghastly about him personally. He writes to him… And I’m going to use words that today we would find completely unacceptable as I find the sentiment completely unacceptable. “The shape of his head and the growth of his hair indicates that he is descended from the Negroes who joined in the flight of Moses from Egypt. Now, this unity of Jewishness with Germanness on a negro basis was bound to produce an extraordinary hybrid.”

And this is Engels, his non-Jewish compatriot on Lassalle. He called him Baron Itzik. He says, “A real Jew from the Slav frontier, an opportunist, a social climber.” Now, Lassalle himself had problems about being Jewish. “I do not like Jews. I even detest them in general. I see in them nothing but the very much degenerated sons of a great and vanished past. During the past centuries of slavery, these men have acquired characteristics of slaves. And that is why I’m unfavourably destruct, dispose towards them. Besides, I have no contact with them, amongst my friends and in society which surrounds me here there is scarcely a Jew.” How true was that is absolutely… You know, that is another question. Can we please go onto the next slide, Judi, if you don’t mind. There you have Rosa Luxemburg.

Now, Rosa Luxemburg was a very, very important figure in the revolutionary movement. She came from Kalisz in Poland. From a Huskalar background. Many of the young revolutionaries are going to come from a Huskalar background. And as they become, their families become more and more secularised. What is going to happen to them, is they’re going to look at the world of Russia. And but, this is what we’ll be spending a lot of time on in the next few months. And of course, the world of Russia was an absolutely appalling place. And what happens to them is that they turn against… They turn against Russia, they can’t go back to the Jewish world. And this whole notion of trying to create a brave new world. Now, she was a brilliant student. She read her family as a Huskalar family. There was a lot of literature, Russian literature, German literature, French literature in the house. And she grew up as an internationalist. She left Russia for Switzerland. She married a Swiss for citizenship and then she goes to Germany. And of course she is most famous for the revolution in Berlin. She was murdered by the Freikorp. She was shot in the head and thrown her into… Body thrown into the Landwehr Canal. Now what about her and her Jewishness?

She wrote a letter to a friend, “No room in my heart for Jewish suffering. But look girl, if you so rarely find the opportunity to take a book into your hands, at least make a point of reading good books. Not such kitsch as the Spinoza novel you have just sent me. Why’d you come to me with your particular Jewish sorrows? I feel equally close to the plantations in Putumayo or to the Negroes in Africa, with whose bodies the Europeans are playing catch ball. Do you remember the words elicited by the general staff’s work on tropher’s campaign in the Kalahari Desert? The rattling in the streets of in the throats of the dying. And the mass screams of those who are withering from thirst faded away into the sublime stillness of the infinite. Oh, this sublime stillness of the infinite in which so many screams fade away unheard. It reverberates within me so strongly that I have no separate corner in my heart for the world of the ghetto. I feel at home in the entire world whenever there are clouds and birds and human tears.”

And of course, much of the anti-Rosa sentiment was centred on her Jewishness. These, as I said to you, and I can say it until I’m purple or blue, they had lost their Jewishness. They didn’t see themselves as part of it. The problem was, that they were seen by the outsiders of Jews. Can we now have a look at the next picture? And there you have him, Lev Davidovich Bronstein. What an extraordinary career he had. The man from Odessa. The international revolutionary, who not only was number two to Lenin in the revolution. And because of him the revolution held, he proved to be a brilliant military strategist. His train going from Red Army people to Red Army people. The Red Army that he created. He becomes Commissar for Foreign Affairs. He’s completely vanquished by the wily Stalin, the arrogant, intellectual Trotsky cannot, stand up against Stalin. And of course, he is exiled. And anti-Semitism is used against him.

Actually, ironically, not so much by the left until Stalin changes, but of course, by those who hated Trotsky. Think about the revolution in Russia. It was seen to them as a completely Jewish revolution. Now, in exile in Mexico, he had some things to say about the Jewish question. And I’m going to read to you a couple of extraction, his last writings on the Jews. Now this is from December, 1938. “The number of countries which expels the Jews grows. Whilst those willing to accept them diminishes. It is possible to imagine without difficulty what awaits the Jews that the mere outbreak of World War.” He’s writing this in December 38th. “But even without war, the next development of world reaction signifies with certainty the physical extermination of the Jews.”

This is another article he wrote. “During my youth, I rather lean towards the prognosis that the Jews of different countries would be assimilated and that the Jewish question will disappear in quasi-automatic form. The historic development of the last quarter of a century has not confirmed this perspective. Decaying capitalism has swung over to as exacerbated nationalism, a part of which is always anti-Semitism. The Jewish question has loom largest in the most highly developed capitalist country in Europe, Germany.” So you know, in a way… He foresees what is going to happen. Of course, he’s murdered by Stalin before anything, you know, he could really do anything. But the point is, it’s there. It’s there, it’s there. Now, let’s look… Before we look at the issue of how the enemies of these Jews on the left, were going to twist it. I think it’s rather important just to really emphasise the point, just how strong they were within the left wing movements in Russia. So let me just begin.

On April 9th, 1917, a train poured into a Swiss town on the German border. There were 32 Russians on board, including 10 women and two children. Alexander Guchkov who was the Russian minister of war in the provisional government of Kerensky, he told the British attache, on the military attache, Alfred Knox, the extreme elements consists of Jews and imbeciles. Now, that train is such a fascinating story. Let’s turn to the next slide please of Julius Martov. I’ve already mentioned that the Mensheviks, the majority of the Mensheviks, which means minority were Jews, that is the leader of the Mensheviks, Julius Martov. Back in the year 1903, there was a conference in London. Lenin of course, convened the conference. There were about 44 delegates there. 90% of the Mensheviks were Jewish. They decided the Bund couldn’t be part of it. 50% of the Bolsheviks were Jewish.

That is Martov the leader of the Mensheviks. Now, can we go on please to the next picture? Thank you. Okay. Let’s go back to the train. Martov was on the train, by the way. A man called Alexander Helphand, better known of Parvus. He came from a shtetl in Belarus. He was a fascinating man. He came to live in Odessa. He was exposed to the writings of Hertz, he’s electoral. He moves to Germany, he’s very close to Rosa Luxemburg. He’s also becomes a very, very wealthy man. He’d been arrested by with Trotsky, visited him in prison and then he moves to Turkey. And in Turkey he goes into the arms business. He becomes the financial and political advisor of the young Turk Revolution. Edited their daily newspaper. He was in business with all sorts of arms dealers. He was probably a British intelligence asset. In Turkey, he was close to the German ambassador, but he was also in sympathy with the revolutionaries. It’s fascinating how many wealthy Jews were in fact, in sympathy with the revolution.

In 1915, he’d submitted a plan to the German ambassador. A preparation for massive political strikes in Russia. He said, “Sponsor the Bolsheviks. Sponsor revolution and Russia will pull out of the war.” Remember, Germany is fighting Russia. Now, what he does is by 1917 a revolution does break up, Kerensky’s revolution. But Kerensky was loyal to the war. And Russian troops were still fighting in the war. The Tsar is deposed. Of course, the international socialists, they wanted the war to stop. Think of the first line of the manifesto. “Workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains.” So Parvus, Alexander Helphand, of course, a Jew, his real name was Israel Lazarevich Gelfand. He persuades the Germans to send a train into Russia. Send the revolutionaries back. Now what happens to him, actually?

He spent his last years in Berlin in a 32 room mansion on Peacock Island. So Lev Kamenev was one of the most important figures on the train. You had, of course Lenin. And by the way, anti-Semitic parties have recently… Five years ago discovered his grandmother was Jewish. Lev Kamenev, he is going to be one of the most important of the revolutionary figures. He was born Leo Rosenfeld. He was the brother-in-law of Trotsky, and was one of the seven members of the first Politburo. Who were the seven members of the first Politburo? Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, who was also Jewish. Kamenev, Stalin, Sokolnikov and Bubnov. Of the seven, only two were not Jewish or not born Jews. So do you see how what this is going to do to the enemies of communism and Bolshevism? Can we now have a look at Grigory Zinoviev? The next slide please, Judi. Here you go.

Grigory Zinoviev. He was born Yankelevich Brilliant. Oh, sorry, no, sorry. He was born Hirsch Apfelbaum. And of course, Huskalar background. Broken away completely from his origins. These are committed communists. Later on, Zinoviev and Kamenev side with Stalin against Trotsky. And you’ll notice they both die in 1936. They are killed by Stalin in the great purges. And the next person I want to mention of the Politburo is Grigori Sokolnikov. His real name was Yankelevich Brilliant. He was a member of the delegation to Brest-Litovsk which I’ll talk about in a moment. Yakov Sverdlov another. He was the… After the Revolution, he was chairman of the executive committee. He was in fact head of state, fiercely clever. And in fact, it was he who gave the order for the assassination of the Tsar. And this Trotsky diary of the conversation with Sverdlov. “Where is the Tsar? Finished, shot. Where is the family? Along with them. All of them. Who made the decision? Evidently, Lenin. And this is Trotsky’s diary. Lenin believed we shouldn’t leave the whites a live banner. We decided to have it here.”

So can you imagine what that did to… What that actually did to the image of the Jew in Russia, on those who were against the revolution. Now, can we go on please, Judi? Thank you. I’m now turning to Germany. So you have the revolution in Russia. And we’ll be spending a lot of time on it next… When we come to the next presentation. So Kurt Eisner. Kurt Eisner was behind the revolution in Munich. Can we go on? He was assassinated. Ernst Toller. A great artist. Both Eisner and Toller were artist intellectuals. He actually was put in prison but he managed to escape to America and committed suicide in 1939. Of the revolutionaries who took power in Germany for that growth brief period. The majority of them were born Jews and it’s something that Pius XII when he was Papa nuncio in Bavaria, he wrote very anti-Semitic letters about. Now, let’s turn please to the next slide.

There you have Bela Kun, who led the Hungarian revolution. It only lasted a short time. He went back to Russia. And was very useful to Lenin trying to stir up political descents throughout Europe. He was assassinated by… He was executed by Stalin. Now, I want to show you one of the most powerful photographs imaginable in the history of anti-Semitism. Can we have a look at it please? There you have the treaty of… The signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litosk. This is the signing when having taken power. Trotsky as Commissar for Foreign Affairs with his aid, the Jewish Adolph Joffe, who later became the first ambassador to Berlin. You know, the Germans after the war. Do you know what that image did to anti-Semitism in Germany? It’s one of the most powerful images. And now, I want to show you another image. Can we see the last image please, Judi. This is a white Russian poster.

Because of course, as you know, the Russian, the Red Army was fighting the whites, was fighting the Ukrainian nationalists under Petliura. There was the whites were led by General Denikin. This is in fact a poster of the white Russians. And here you see Trotsky, the Jewish devil. The creator of the Red Army. With the blood of all the Russians and of course, the symbol around his neck. This is Trotsky, the devil. And it’s interesting because Trotsky had thrown away his Jewishness. The tragedy of these revolutionaries is they really believe they could create the brave new world. And the problem was, that in the end, it didn’t matter whether you were a capitalist or whether you were a communist. Those who believe in race, a Jew is a Jews, a Jew, and it all fed into the protocols of the elders of Zion. The protocols of the elders of Zion was published, came out of Russia, 1903, 1904, 1905.

But at the end of the first World War, particularly, with the Russian Revolution, it is spread throughout the whole of Europe. White Russians bring it to Germany. It hits Britain. Even Churchill reads it and he writes an incredible letter in… He writes an article in the “Sunday Herald” saying, “Jews should be Zionist, better that than Bolsheviks.” So it’s important to remember this notion of Jews and revolution. But ironically, the whole notion of Jews and revolution changed dramatically on the left. I’ve already shown you the beginnings of the anti-Semitism on the left. But after the establishment of the state of Israel, ironically, Stalin backed it. Ironically, there was a great article in the “Daily Worker” saying, “We must back embattled little Israelis as against the feudal Arab state.” But it gradually changes. And the most anti-Semitic literature is going to come out of Stalin’s Russia, and out of the left. And it’s going to land up in all the left wing parties and it’s going to finish up tragically, in the kind of hatred that we see today. There’s a direct progression.

So I’m going to stop there, because I reckon there’s going to be quite a lot of questions on this. I hope I’ve held the line. Let’s have a look, Judi. Did we hold the line?

Q&A and Comments

This is Rose. There’s something on our TV today. There’s an increased anti-Semitism for Israel. Everyone. Surely, German anti-Semitism was not just their noses. Envy and success success competition resentment. Yes, of course, he’s being ironic, Peter. What he’s saying is it’s racial. Germans hate the Jews because of their race. You’ve got to remember the Jews were the only non-Christian minority at this time. You’ve got that whole baggage of Christian anti-Judaism. And of course, you do have this incredible success story of a small number.

And this is from Zac Elliot. It’s so sad that many Jews lack the knowledge to support the reasons, while the most learned rabbis have rejected the notion that Jesus was the long promised Messiah. They need to learn how to conquer these so Messianic Jews arguments, support their position. It’s a very interesting point, Elliot. In fact, we will be having sessions on false and failed Messiahs.

Ron, might the involvement of Jews in social change movements not of more to do with being outsiders than being Jews. For those with little or no Jewish education, I don’t see how Jewish religion would inform their social activism. As outsiders and they feel less need to conform to the norms of society and they’re more freedom to act and inform. It’s very interesting, Ron. You got me into a very contentious area now. I agree it’s their outsideness that’s incredibly important. But you can make if… Do you believe in collective memory? I’m just putting that question there. Do you believe that we inherit certain characteristics? Question mark. I had a student when we used to be able to speak… Teach face to face, who was a Russian. He was an epigeneticist, and he put some very interesting theories before me.

Anyway, this is from Adrian. Tragically, the anti-Jewish, anti- Zionist Jews were weaponized by extremists to support their own collectively. Yes, of course. And it’s a deep psychological problem, is it not, Adrian? Right? Colin, a little slower on the reading, I apologise. Marx’s early writings prior to the communist mess set up the problem of personal alienation, which do resonate more directly with Jewish background. His Jewish self-hatred emerges more clearly with the adoption of scientific socialism. Yes, very much so, Jeffrey. Marx is such a complex character. I understand why anti-Semites might consider Marx a Jew.

Q: Why did Jews consider him a Jew? A: Important question. I don’t think Jews would consider him. You see, it depends. How do you define Jew by the way? I think we have to go to that. We have to go to that, don’t we? Define Jew for me. Marx certainly didn’t want to be a Jew. But the problem with Marx was, he was the grandson of rabbis. Grandfather on one side, father on the other side. His father’s brother was a rabbi. He came from a great rabbinic tradition. He’d looked different from most of the boys he went to school with. At a time when race theory is emerging in Germany, so he knew he was of Jewish origin. And he had none of the benefits of being a Jew. So I think you’d have to ask yourself to define Jew. Who does the defining? It’d be wonderful if we could just define ourselves.

Victoria, yes, of course. She was born in Zamosc, not Kalisz. I dunno where I got that mistake from. I’ve been to Zamosc. It’s one of the most beautiful towns imaginable. In fact, the Germans loved it so much, they didn’t destroy it. What they did was, they sent the Polish population, the men off to concentration camps. And they took over the town with… They populated it with Germans. Emil Heller, how no one can experience self-hatred unless he has first been hated. It’s the internalisation of externally derived hatred. It leads to shame, identification with the aggressor, and assimilation. I’ve observed it in second generation parents whose… Second generation patients whose parents were Holocaust survivors. Socialism was, and I suppose still in its purest form. An on utopian fantasy that stirred the Jewish commitment to justice and equality. The defining features of non-Jewish Jews and non-observant Jews requires some discussion.

Thanks again, Mari Lynn. That is the most brilliant comment. And hopefully, Dennis will be picking that up tonight and again, tomorrow night. I’m going to read it again for everybody. No one can experience self-hatred unless he has first been hated. It’s the internalisation of externally derived hatred. It leads to shame, identification with the aggressor, and assimilation. I’ve observed it in second generation patients whose parents were Holocaust survivors. Socialism was, and I suppose still is in its purest form, a utopian fantasy that stirred the Jewish commitment to justice and equality. The defining features of non-Jewish Jews and non-observant Jews requires some discussion. Superb.

Q: Mimi, why was Karl Marx buried in Highgate Cemetery, in a non-Jewish cemetery? A: He wasn’t Jewish. He didn’t see himself as a Jew. You know, by the way, when he was buried, only 13 people were at the… Were in the cemetery. And as Allen’s pointed out, Highgate Cemetery is a secular location. There are other Jewish people buried there. It’s now managed by an independent charity. It’s a fascinating… This might sound very morbid, but cemeteries are very interesting places for historians. He’s buried quite near Mary Ann Evans, who of course her literary name is George Eliot. And she wrote that very important Zionist novel, “Daniel Deronda.”

This is from Harriet. Trotsky was from Mykolaiv, some 80 miles east of Odessa, where he attended school as a youth and embraced revolutionary themes. Mykolaiv was at various times home to Isaac Babel, Haim Nahman Bialik and the birth page of the Lubavitcher Rebbe to whom there are monuments. Oh, how big was it Harriet? Because I know he came to Odessa as a young man, as a young boy, and he went to live with his mother’s brother, I think. Who was the superintendent of a Jewish school. That is very interesting. Oh, I love this. I always say I love our group. You can always add to knowledge. Poster of Trotsky as the Red Devil has him wearing a five-pointy star, that’s witchcraft. Not the star of David. Yes, that is an anti-Semitic poster. I’m afraid, Ron. I guess it’s true, says Myrna, the revolution eats its own. Hi, Judi. But can we have a list of references, impossible to write down. Yes.

Q: Richard, is it accurate to say that Stalin was still a leftist in the 1930s? A: Perhaps, he is. He actually became a simple totalitarian dictator. Oh, that’s such a good question, Richard. I’m going to shelve it because we’ll be spending so much time on Stalin.

Q: Would the revolution have been different if Trotsky had taken control? A: Hmm. Unfortunately, it was a utopian dream, was it not?

Edna Oppenheim, an interesting novel about revolutionaries between 1933 and '38, to Fred Tollund, including Toller, is by Anna Funder, “All That I Am.” Based in the account of one of the groups who survived. Fabulous.

Q: Alison, do you think most Jews today are informed by their politics and by their faith? A: Alison, that’s a very interesting question. But when you say most Jews, what are we talking about? Are we talking about religious Jews? Are we talking about Jews who identify Zionist secular? You see Jews are people. The problem is that many detractors lump us all together. I mean, Jews are capitalist, Jews are communist. Jews are whatever you want to be. And we’re all individuals. We even talk about… I was with friends last night who really think the whole notion even of a Jewish community is an illusion. But outsiders, just as they… The outsiders, we always tend to band any group together that isn’t ours, don’t we? Today there are many minority groups. I was told by a Black educator, friend of mine, there are 81 different Black communities living in England. So, and yet they’re called the Black community. What on earth does that mean? So again, you’re back to the eternal question. What does it mean to be a Jew? I really think we have finished.

• [Judi] Okay, Michael’s asking if could please repeat the part of the Elliot book on Zionism..

• All right, I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that, Judi.

• [Judi] - Repeat the title of the Eliot book on Zionism.

• Please repeat the title of the Eliot book on Zionism. It’s Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. It’s a fabulous book. She was a pro to Zionist. She was an English author, of course, one of the greatest English authors. And she was herself a very alienated individual. And I think there’s also a… I think it’s on Netflix or on Prime. There is a television production of Daniel Deronda. It’s a brilliant, you know, if you want to have a good wallow, read the book and have a look at the television production as well, Michael. It’s absolutely superb.

Anyway, I thank you all. And I will see you next week. Please don’t forget Dennis tonight, and Patrick tomorrow. And then, Dennis again tomorrow lecturing on the whole concept of Isaac Deutscher and the non-Jewish Jew.

Thank you, Judi, as ever. God bless.