Jews historically occupied no social class but sat as an inserted wedge between classes.

Evidence

Jacob Lestschinsky, in an early discussion of the Jewish problem, pointed out that Jews did not belong to any social class, and spoke of a “Klasseneinschiebsel” (in Weltwirtschafts-Archiv, 1929, Band 30, 123 if.), but saw only the disadvantages of this situation in Eastern Europe, not its great advantages in Western and Central European countries. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1968

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the concept Klasseneinschiebsel — a class-insertion — describing Jews’ class-less structural position.
• XREF: Ties directly to Arendt’s central thesis about the Jews as a class-less, state-dependent stratum in the main chapters.