[ExI] The Catholic Impact (was Re: Origin of ethics and morals)

[PJ Manney]

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 9:26 AM, Randall  Webmail <rvh40 at insightbb.com> wrote:
> Something that has always puzzled me:
> Other than the Rothschilds and the other banking families, European Jewry was for the most part impoverished, at least in central and eastern Europe.    They came to the US, like as not with a couple nickels at most in their pockets,and in thirty years they're comparatively well-off.
>
> Why is that?   Are they still subject to that much persecution in central and eastern Europe?  (Yes, in the Soviet Bloc, I suppose they were - but Austria?)

I really hope I'm not rising to bait...

I'm not sure where you got the idea that except for a handful of
bankers, all the Jews were impoverished in Europe.  In their home
countries, I'd say the socio-economic ratios were at least similar to
the the dominant culture.  What they couldn't do was own large
agricultural lands, so you didn't have landed gentry.  That didn't
mean they couldn't own estates, especially by the 19th C.  They just
couldn't have a feudal-style relationship to the land.  So most Jews
were urban.  They owned businesses, worked in finance and
trade/commerce, because that's what they were allowed to do.  And it
kept them close to their religious communities.

However, the Jews WERE periodically dispossessed.  It was not against
the law to refuse to pay debts to Jews or their banks.  In fact, most
of the monarchies of Europe used that as a governmental bail out plan
for centuries!  Pogroms in countries like Russia meant communities
that had been functional one minute were razed to the ground the next.
 So those who once had small subsistence farms or businesses had
nothing.  That's powerful motivation to high-tail it to another
country with whatever you could stuff in your pockets before the
Cossacks came riding through...

They might have left with nothing (it was hard to emigrate with
stuff), but they brought with them education, skills and a desire to
succeed in abundance.

You're right, life is still difficult for them in former Soviet
countries, which is why there is still emigration.  Post WWII, no one
wanted the survivors back in their home countries, so that caused the
huge postwar emigration to North and South America, Australasia and
Israel.  But I'm not aware of significant problems in present day
Europe.

PJ