A German scholar proposed exporting Jews to West Indian labor colonies.

Evidence

Hess provides some concrete support for the “Jews-as-colonials” argument. The German biblical scholar Johann David Michaelis (1717–91) was an orientalist and an anti-Jewish polemicist. Hess notes that Michaelis came up with a colonialist solution to the “problem” of the Jews as the Asiatic residents of Europe. He suggested turning Europe’s Jews into real colonials—by exporting them to “sugar islands” in the West Indies, where they would labor to benefit the German economy. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 78 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: An 18th-century German scholar proposed deporting Jews to West Indian sugar plantations; European orientalists proposed solving the Jewish question by exporting Jews as colonial laborers — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 78

Broader Connections

• European orientalists proposed solving the Jewish question by exporting Jews as colonial laborers #expands (0.95) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 78