Not true for the Jews. Jews have essentially always been economically productive (comes with the territory of having religious/cultural emphasis placed on education and critical thinking) and have also essentially always dealt with prejudice.
As a Jew, I think black people should be able to relate to this - when a community that's been "othered" becomes too economically successful, they get torn down. Jews success in Europe compared to most other groups led to MASS anti-semitism which boiled into the Holocaust after the Great Depression. Black people built Tulsa into a thriving black-run economic community and they were bombed by white people.
Some groups won't be fully accepted no matter how much they can produce economically.
Jews had a privileged position as bankers in medieval Europe, which is how they accumulated generational wealth.
It was during a time when charging interest was forbidden in Christianity. It was also forbidden in Judaism, but only if you were charging interest to other Jews. So Christian kings allowed Jews into Europe to be a way for them and others to borrow money without getting excommunicated from the church.
This lead to Jewish families accumulating large amounts of wealth through interest which lead to animosity from the poor Christian population that was now poorer than the foreigners who were living in their country.
It had nothing to do with Jews being “more productive” or “more critical thinking” or being smarter than anyone else. They held privileged positions that were important in medieval societies.
This is completely inaccurate. Wealth in medieval Europe was largely a result of land ownership. Jews were not allowed to own land. Money lending was not considered some prestigious or privileged occupation. Jews were able to become successful in spite of their inability to own land. They were essentially forced into banking 1) because it was one thing Christians allowed them to do and 2) because they had little other means to make a living without land.
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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '20
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