1/7/23
Newsletter #212
The Crack of Dawn
When I was about 7 years old, I asked my dad, “What’s a Semite?” I really wanted to know what an antisemite was, but since I already knew that the prefix, “anti,” meant “against,” all I needed to know was what a Semite was, then I’d understand. My dear old dad said, “A Semite is a wandering Jew,” which, of course, is not true; a Semite is a race of people that includes both Jews and Arabs. Anyway, I thought, “We’re not wandering anywhere, so I have nothing to worry about.” My father went on to explain that since the Jews had been kicked out of so many countries in the world, including their own country, they were always prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. And since most countries had laws against Jews owning land, Jews had a tendency to go into businesses that were mobile, like being doctors or lawyers. Jews also went into moneylending because Christians felt that it was both beneath them and against the scriptures (Jesus had specifically spoken against it). So, gentiles used Jews as conduits for business transactions that included the borrowing or lending of funds. That’s how Jews got into finance.
This explanation is necessary to understand how Jews basically found themselves in the various businesses with which they are now synonymous. American high-finance, or what is now offhandedly called Wall Street, almost completely excluded Jews for its first 350 years — hello, everybody, 350 years is longer than the United Staes has existed. From the early 1500s when the Dutch settled New Amsterdam (later New York) strictly for the purpose of commerce, then the French and British joined in, until after the Civil War in the 1870s, did the Jews finally sneak into American high finance. All of the earlier American financial bigshots were all gentile: J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockerfeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, E. H. Harriman. But once the Jews finally infiltrated – when the gentiles let them – they pretty much took over, as Jews will do, given the chance.
Which of course brings me to the movie business. For the first 20 years of film production there were pretty much no Jews involved, excluding Bronco Billy Anderson (really Aronson). Thomas Edison, D.W. Griffith, Biograph Films, Mutual Pictures, it was all gentile. Jews had made their way into exhibition, by renting small storefront spaces and starting nickelodeons. Jews then went into distribution because no one was being supplied with enough product. Distribution wasn’t about making movies, it was about duplicating them. There were only so many times you could make a copy of a train pulling into a station.
But then Edison began the Patent Trust in 1910, attempting the reign in and profit from, the use of what he believed he owned all the patents to, the movie camera. And this is where this idea began, because I just heard the reiterated falsehood that Edison’s Patent Trust, which was mostly gentile, was antisemitic. Thomas Edison was no more antisemitic than your average American at that point – meaning, yes, but not much since they’d never met a Jew – and had no intention or motivation to stop Jews from doing anything. Besides, Jews didn’t make movies then, they only showed and distributed them. But because Edison obstructed film production in the east, folks went west to get these movies made because they were such highly sought-after product.
Who had the theaters and nickelodeons that had nothing to show but cats boxing over and over again? The Jews. And who had made good money in other fields, primarily clothing, and were used to picking up and moving at a moment’s notice? The Jews. So, the Jews went west and began producing product.
Jews didn’t take over Hollywood, they built it because gentiles ran the eastern end of the film business so poorly. For as much as I admire Thomas Edison, who was not an antisemite, he was bad at running his businesses. He should never have gone into manufacturing his inventions, but it was 1870, and who knew how you make money with great ideas at that point? Edison thought it was about enforcing his patents, and for a time it was. Then it wasn’t, but he couldn’t get with that.
My point is called unintended consequences. The white supremacists marching with their tiki-torches chanting, “Jews will not replace us,” are wrong. Jews, as few of us as there are (0.02% of the world’s population) will replace you – that’s if you won’t do your job.
With that, have a lovely day.