ABSTRACT
Hitler almost succeeded in eliminating the Jews from the continent of Europe, but in the meantime new realities of Jewish existence have arisen in America and Israel, and the question is posed whether the pattern of Jewish-Gentile relations that had been established over many centuries of European history has been essentially altered by the shift of locale. But before we answer that question, it is necessary to take a quick look at the Soviet Union and the Russian satellite states of Eastern Europe where, even after the enormous bloodletting of the Nazi era, over 3,000,000 Jews continue to make their home. After all, it has been the argument of communist theoreticians, even of Marx himself, that the abolition of the private appropriation of the means of production and the establishment of a socialist society will do away with the role of the Jew as a capitalist “exploiter” and therefore with the very raison d’être for the continued existence of the Jews as a separate ethnic entity. It was deduced, that inasmuch as the Jewish people were no more than an economic caste, the enmity against them would lose its point with the disappearance of that caste. The argument overlooks the simple fact that a bureaucratic economy must fulfill the same functions as a private economy. This was clearly recognized by the German sociologist Albert Schaeffle a hundred years ago. Indeed, Jewish employees are presently numerous in the management of the economic institutions of the Soviet Union, especially on the intermediate level. Consumer dissatisfaction can therefore be directed against them. Jewish managers and experts may find themselves in the unenviable position of being blamed for failures in planning–not unlike the position in which the Jewish agent finds himself in a private economy. To be sure, in the first decade of Bolshevik rule numerous Jewish traders, merchants, agents, and artisans were forced into the ranks of industrial 180labor or remained unemployed; but very soon the rapid expansion of the governmental services placed a premium on managerial, operative, and supervisory qualifications so that it is hardly amazing that young Jews were attracted to the new opportunities. Consequently, the economic pursuits of Soviet Jewry soon became, as in more or less capitalistic countries, concentrated in the administrative, technical, professional, and cultural fields. The data are sketchy, but the general drift is clear. While, according to the last available Soviet census (1959), 1.09 percent of the total population and 2.16 percent of the urban population were persons registered as “Jewish nationality,” Jews were 3.22 percent of all high school students, 4.9 percent of those with secondary higher education (doctors, officials, engineers, bookkeepers, etc.) And between 9 and 10 percent of all “scientific workers.” Astute analysts of these and related statistical data have concluded not only that Soviet Jews are largely in positions in the economy that are both visible and devoid of political power, but that there is also an observable tendency on the part of the authorities to squeeze them out of positions in which they have attained some prominence or have them simply wither on the vine as soon as Ukranian, Byelorussian, and other “native” young people aspire to administrative and scientific careers. Consequently, there are more older Jewish scientists and administrators than there are younger ones to replace them. These trends may have far-reaching consequences that cannot be pursued at this point.
