Economic utility shaped noble attitudes toward Jews more than abstract ideology

Evidence

A nobleman’s natural resentment against losing a valuable source of help in emergencies made him want to marry a Jewish girl with a rich father rather than hate the Jewish people. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 130

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the general theme that antisemitism as ideology is not a direct reflex of economic relations — relevant to the field’s skepticism of vulgar materialism, and to later Arendt arguments about antisemitism’s independence from actual Jewish economic function. — connects to: Jewish wealth simultaneously attracted anti-Semitism and shielded against it — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 39