Jewish wealth simultaneously attracted antisemitism and enabled socialist identification in heirs

Evidence

Lukács’s father, the son of a provincial Jewish craftsman, had risen by his own efforts into the upper middle classes during a period of accelerated industrialization in Budapest. He had received an aristocratic title at around the turn of the century. These successes went hand in hand with his political conservatism and generous patronage of the arts. His son, who was intended to step into his father’s shoes, took his doctorate in political science after studying law and economics, and took up a post with the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Trade. Shortly afterwards, he gave up the post to continue his studies, now devoted entirely to literature, the history of art and philosophy. The father became a patron to his own son, who, like many of the sons of assimilated upper-middle-class Jewish families which had experienced sudden social advancement, turned his back on the paternal money-earning world and became an anti-capitalist theoretician. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 305 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

This was not merely a strategic concession (after all, Weil was hoping to submit the doctoral thesis to professors who were not in any sense socialists). It also had a certain existential significance for Weil. It was evidence of the conflict between his father’s position as a businessman and his own socialist sympathies. This was a conflict which existed more often in Jewish than in non-Jewish families, but which was not strong enough to make the sons of such families want to break with their fathers’ world at all costs. To the Jews, wealth must have seemed as much a cause of anti-Semitic resentment as it was a protection from it, as much an encouragement to identify with anti-capitalist positions as it was a form of protection only to be surrendered when the future was secure and it was no longer needed. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 39 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Jewish wealth simultaneously attracted anti-Semitism and shielded against it — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 39; Leftist antisemitism drew strength from Jews’ actual moneylending and finance roles — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 170; Jewish banking ties to state loans turned class resentment into political antisemitism (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Assimilated wealthy Jewish sons often rebelled into anti-capitalist theory against their fathers #corroborates (0.90) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 305
• Jewish wealth simultaneously attracted anti-Semitism and shielded against it #expands (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 39
• Antisemitic images of Jews function to perpetuate the rule of domination. #expands (0.80)
• Wealthy and educated Jews both internalized their own exceptionality as society judged them #expands (0.80)
• Jews were historically overrepresented among revolutionary socialists and communists #corroborates (0.80) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 946
• Leftist antisemitism drew strength from Jews’ actual moneylending and finance roles #complicates (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 170
• Aristocratic antisemitism targeted Jews as symbols of the state, not as economic rivals #qualifies (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 132
• Economic usefulness of Jews outweighed noble prejudice until state change #qualifies (0.75)
• Racialized self-understanding among Jews preceded the rise of antisemitism among Gentiles. #complicates (0.75)
• Jewish banking ties to state loans turned class resentment into political antisemitism #complicates (0.72)
• Antisemitism peaked after Jews had already lost economic influence #complicates (0.72)
• Economic precarity of the lower middle class fueled sudden antisemitism #expands (0.72) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 141