# Investigation: Jewish Press on Revolutionary Russia — Verified Quotations Only

> **TL;DR:** Contemporary **Anglo–Jewish periodicals** (1919–1920) contain editorial language that **parallel** parts of Bolshevik rhetoric with **Jewish ethical idealism** and, in one American weekly, celebrate Jewish participation in the Russian revolution as a model for world transformation. This dossier cites **digitized primaries** (Internet Archive). **§5** reproduces **every bullet** from a circulating graphic titled *A Collection of Quotes from Jewish Periodicals on Bolshevism*, each with an **evidence assessment**. **§8** surveys **major modern “working” definitions** of antisemitism (IHRA, Nexus, JDA and their lineages) and **why they clash**—relevant whenever the same historical material is labeled hate speech or defended as scholarship. **Companion:** this repo’s **in-house** counter-frame—**anti-monolith historiography** and **speech norms**—is in [Paradigm Threat — working definition of antisemitism](/history/chronology/investigations/paradigm-threat-working-definition-antisemitism.md). Interpretation here is **standard historical sociology**: Tsarist **legal disability**, **pogrom waves**, and **WWI dislocation** help explain why **some** Jewish intellectuals and communities **experimented with** revolutionary politics as a possible exit from violence — a hope that **failed in practice** when civil war, **counter-revolutionary pogroms**, Soviet state violence, and later Stalinism showed the revolution in **exterminatory or assimilatory “wrong hands.”** Nothing here implies a single Jewish intent, “Judaism = Marxism,” or collective guilt.

## 1. Method

| Rule | Rationale |
|------|-----------|
| **Primary or paginated secondary only** | Flyers and forum lists routinely misdate, mistruncate, or invent lines. |
| **Quote text aligned to digitized OCR, with cleanup noted** | Archive.org DJVU-derived text has predictable errors (`Ihe` → *the*, etc.); cleaned wording below matches the **sense** of the line and should be checked against the image/PDF before legal or academic republication. |
| **Do not treat editorial voice as “the community”** | One London leader-writer or one New York weekly ≠ diaspora consensus. |
| **Keep separate from Fomenko Ch.9 “treasury caste” framing** | That is a different explanatory model; mixing without signposting confuses readers. See [Disputes against Jews reemerge](https://paradigmthreat.net/timeline/evt-1633-ce-disputes-against-jews-reemerge) (timeline) for the NC strand. |

---

## 2. Historical frame (mainstream, for context only)

Under the late **Tsars**, Jewish subjects in the **Pale of Settlement** faced **residential restriction**, **quotas**, **double penalties**, and **recurrent pogroms** (1880s onward; renewed brutality during the **Russian Civil War** on **both** sides of the fighting). **World War I** displaced populations and broke food and order. In that pressure cooker, **socialism and liberal nationalism** (Bundism, Zionism, Marxism, Folkspartey, etc.) competed for loyalty. **Some** Jews saw in **February/October 1917** a **chance** for **equal citizenship** and an end to official antisemitism; **others** opposed the Bolsheviks from the first day. The quotations below illustrate **how two English-language Jewish outlets wrote in that window** — not who “controlled” the revolution.

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## 3. Verified primary — *Jewish Chronicle* (London), 4 April 1919

**Article:** “Peace, War – and Bolshevism” (leader; appears on **p. 7** of that issue per Internet Archive item metadata).

**Digitized full text (DJVU-derived OCR):** [Internet Archive — B-001-018-446](https://archive.org/details/B-001-018-446)

**Passage (cleaned from Archive OCR; verify against scan before citing as legal evidence):**

> There is much in the fact of Bolshevism itself, in the fact that so many Jews are Bolshevists, in the fact that the ideals of Bolshevism at many points are consonant with the finest ideals of Judaism, some of which went to form the basis of the best teachings of the founder of Christianity—these are things which the thoughtful Jew will examine carefully. It is the thoughtless one who looks upon Bolshevism only in the repulsive aspects which all social revolutions assume…

**Why it matters for your narrative:** The paper **acknowledges** Jewish presence among Bolsheviks and **argues** that **idealistic** Jews may **sympathise** with **stated** revolutionary goals that **echo** ethical themes in Judaism — while warning the **“thoughtless”** reader not to stop at the **ugly surface** of any revolution. That is **optimistic editorial rhetoric in wartime London**, not a statistical claim about party membership.

---

## 4. Verified primary — *The American Hebrew* (New York), **10 September 1920**

**Note on dating:** Secondary compilations often give **20** September; the **Internet Archive** clipping of the paragraph (uploaded as a standalone image artifact) attributes the line to **10 September 1920**. This investigation **follows that artifact date** until a full volume page is pinned in hand.

**Digitized artifact (image of the quoted block + attribution line):** [Internet Archive — the-bolshevik-revolution-was-the-product-of-jewish-brains-american-hebrew](https://archive.org/details/the-bolshevik-revolution-was-the-product-of-jewish-brains-american-hebrew)

**Passage (from the same artifact; punctuation per scan):**

> “The Bolshevik revolution in Russia was the work of Jewish brains, of Jewish dissatisfaction, of Jewish planning, whose goal is to create a new order in the world. What was performed in so excellent a way in Russia, thanks to Jewish brains, and because of Jewish dissatisfaction and by Jewish planning, shall also, through the same Jewish mental and physical forces, become a reality all over the world.” (The American Hebrew, September 10, 1920)

**Bibliographic anchor for the full serial:** HathiTrust catalog record for *The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger* (searchable volumes include 1920): [catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100113118](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100113118) — use the Ohio State University scan **osu.32435057876310** (vol. 107) to locate **exact page and column** in the bound volume.

**Why it matters for your narrative:** This is **maximalist boosterism** from **one** New York weekly: it treats Jewish participation in the Russian revolution as **evidence of capacity** and projects similar **world-scale** change. It does **not** prove conspiracy, funding chains, or unified intent. It **does** show that **some** Jewish-American editorialists **celebrated** the event in **ethno-religious** terms — language that **later** propagandists recycled out of context.

---

## 5. Complete inventory — graphic *A Collection of Quotes from Jewish Periodicals on Bolshevism*

The following reproduces **each item** as it appears on the graphic (wording may follow common flyer variants). **Assessment** = whether you can cite it responsibly *as printed* after checking primaries.

| # | Text as on graphic (or reconstructed where cut off) | Claimed source | Assessment |
|---|-----------------------------------------------------|----------------|------------|
| **1** | “Some call it Marxism I call it Judaism.” | Rabbi Stephen Wise, *The American Bulletin*, 5 May 1935 | **Do not cite.** Widely treated as **spurious**: not located in Wise’s archived papers; **inconsistent** with Wise’s documented **anti-communism**. Appears almost exclusively in **secondary propaganda lists**. |
| **2** | “There is much in the fact of Bolshevism itself, in the fact that so many Jews are Bolshevists. The ideals of Bolshevism are consonant with many of the highest ideals of Judaism.” | *The Jewish Chronicle* (London), 4 April 1919 | **Cite with primary check.** Substance **verified** in digitized issue (leader **“Peace, War – and Bolshevism,”** p. 7); flyer **slightly misquotes** — authoritative wording is **“at many points are consonant with the finest ideals of Judaism”** (see §3). |
| **3** | “What Jewish idealism and Jewish discontent have so powerfully contributed to produce in Russia, the same historic qualities of the Jewish mind are tending to promote in other countries…. The Bolshevik revolution in Russia was the work of Jewish brains, of Jewish dissatisfaction, of Jewish planning, whose goal is to create a new order in the world. What was performed in so excellent a way in Russia, thanks to Jewish brains, and because of Jewish dissatisfaction and by Jewish planning, shall also, through the same Jewish mental an physical forces, become a reality all over the world.” | *New York American Hebrew*, 20 September 1920 (graphic) | **Cite primary; fix date.** Long passage **verified** in spirit and core sentences against **digitized artifact**; graphic date **20 Sep** is likely **wrong** — IA clipping gives **10 September 1920** (see §4). First sentences about “Jewish idealism” need confirmation in **bound volume** page image. |
| **4** | “Whatever the racial antecedents of their top man, the first Soviet commissariats were largely staffed with Jews. The Jewish position in the Communist movement was well understood in Russia. The White Armies which opposed the Bolshevik government linked Jews and Bolsheviks as common enemies” | *The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia* | **Secondary / tertiary encyclopedia prose, not a periodical quote.** *UJE* is a **real** reference set (1939–1943). **Cite only** with **volume + page**; do not treat as representative of all Jews; content is **descriptive history** of early Soviet staffing and **White propaganda linkage** — accurate at the level of “this is what the encyclopedia said,” not proof of motive. |
| **5** | “In the Bolshevik era, 52 percent of the membership of the Soviet communist party was Jewish, though Jews comprised only 1.8 percent of the total population.” | Stuart Kahan, *The Wolf of the Kremlin* (1987) | **Do not cite the numbers** without **opening the book** to the **exact page** and comparing to **academic demography** (e.g. contemporary membership surveys show **far lower** Jewish share in the 1920s party than 52%). Book is **contested** (disputed interview / reconstructed dialogue in reviews). |
| **6** | “Half of the six members of the politburo that was the supreme government of Soviet Russia in 1920 were Jews. The first head of the Soviet secret police was Jewish. Jews were prominent in the leadership of the Communist party in Germany, Hungary, and Austria. In the 1920s close to half the members of the small and politically insignificant American Communist party were Jewish.” | Norman Cantor, *The Sacred Chain: A History of the Jews* (1995) | **Secondary synthesis — cite with edition + page.** Cantor’s book **exists** (often **1994** first printing; **1995** reprint). Claims are **broad-brush**; “half” of 1920 Politburo and other clauses need **page-level** check and **cross-check** with biographical reference works; **not** a Jewish periodical quote. |
| **7** | “The founders of the Soviet secret police [later KGB], headquartered in Lubyanka prison in Moscow, were mostly Jews. Jews also took leadership roles, down into the early 1950s, in the Communist parties of Germany, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Rumania. In the struggle for succession to Lenin in the 1920s… most of the high-level Soviet Jews made the mistake of supporting Stalin, an Asiatic anti-Semite who in the purge trials in the mid-1930s eventually eliminated these Jewish ‘Old Bolsheviks.’” | Norman Cantor, *Stalin’s Jews* (1996) | **Do not cite this attribution.** **“Stalin’s Jews” (1996)** is **not** a standard Norman F. Cantor trade title; this is almost certainly a **garbled or invented** citation. If the paragraph exists in print, it may be from ***The Sacred Chain*** or another author — **re-locate** before citing. |
| **8** | “Three of the six members of Lenin's first Politburo, Trotsky, Kamenev, and Zinoviev, were of Jewish origin. Trotsky, in addition was commissar of defense and organized and commanded the Red Army during the civil war that followed the October Revolution. Kamenev and Zinoviev became members of the triumvirate [along with Stalin] that ruled the Soviet Union immediately after Lenin's death in 1924. Other prominent Jews in the early Soviet government included Yakov Sverdlov, president of the Communist party central committee, Maxim Litvinov, commissar for foreign affairs, and Karl Radek, who served as press commissar. In subsequent years, Jews continued to play major roles throughout the Soviet state. Lazar Kaganovich, for example, was [graphic cuts off]” | (graphic: no source line visible) | **Incomplete + not a periodical quote.** Biographical claims are **partly checkable** against standard reference (who sat on early bodies, who was Jewish by background), but **without** the book/page the graphic implied, this is **not citeable as presented**. Trotsky was **People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs** — flyer wording **“commissar of defense”** is loose. |

**Graphic-level note:** The compilation **mixes** (a) real **1919–1920 Anglo–Jewish press**, (b) **encyclopedia** summary, (c) **disputed pop biography**, (d) **mis-cited** Cantor, (e) **spurious** Wise — a pattern typical of **selective-quote** leaflets. Use **§3–4** for anything that must stand up in an argument.

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## 6. Optional sources (do not quote here until pinned)

| Source | Status |
|--------|--------|
| *Universal Jewish Encyclopedia* (1939–1943) — passage on early Soviet commissariats | **Needs volume + page** in a copy you control; paraphrase in flyers is not sufficient. |
| Norman F. Cantor, *The Sacred Chain: A History of the Jews* | **Needs edition + page** for any demographic sentence; treat as **one historian’s synthesis**, not a primary. |
| Any title **“Stalin’s Jews” (1996)** attributed to Cantor | **Reject** — not a standard Cantor bibliography entry; likely **garbled citation**. |
| Stuart Kahan, *The Wolf of the Kremlin* (1987) — e.g. “52% CPSU Jewish” | **Do not cite** the statistic **without** verifying the **exact page** and **cross-checking** against academic membership studies; the book is **contested** as biography. |

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## 7. Do not cite (common flyer / propaganda list)

| Claimed line | Problem |
|--------------|---------|
| “Some call it Marxism, I call it Judaism” — Rabbi Stephen Wise, *American Bulletin*, 1935 | **Not found** in Wise’s archived papers per longstanding archivist and scholarly notes; **inconsistent** with Wise’s **anti-communist** posture. Treat as **spurious** unless a **verified primary** issue surfaces. |
| Block quotes attributed to **Norman Cantor, *Stalin’s Jews* (1996)** | **Fictive or mis-merged** citation; use real Cantor titles with **page numbers** instead. |
| Demographic **percentages** from **uncritical** reuse of Kahan or anonymous web tables | **High error rate**; cite **peer-reviewed** Soviet/Jewish demography instead. |

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## 8. Annex: “Versions” of antisemitism — lineages and the modern definition fight

This annex is **not** legal advice. It maps **formal, published frameworks** that institutions use today when they adjudicate speech, policy, or discipline. **Older** usage (Christian anti-Judaism, racial pseudoscience, Soviet “rootless cosmopolitanism” campaigns, Islamist propaganda, far-right street violence) differs in **shape** from **codified** “working definitions,” but those histories feed **why** definitional fights feel existential to different communities.

> **Author sentiment (linked dossier):** The maintainer treats **IHRA-style** adoption—when used as a **blunt speech code**—as **often negligent** for **honest history**: it can **chill** exactly the kind of **sourced, disaggregated** work this file does (who wrote what, who **opposed** what), and it can **worsen** the **holy-war** mood by **forcing** secretive reading. That is **why** a **separate in-repo definition** exists—not to **deny** that **classical antisemitism** is real, but to **preserve** room for **Jewish disagreement**, **non-religious power analysis**, and **imperial-decline** narratives **without** automatic **collective guilt**.

### 8.0 Paradigm Threat — in-repo working definition (companion)

For a **single-paragraph norm** sized alongside IHRA/JDA **cores**, plus premises (monolithing vs dissent, Israel criticism, ancestry research, optional NC/imperial frame, Protestant/CIA wedge thesis), see:

**[Paradigm Threat — working definition of antisemitism](/history/chronology/investigations/paradigm-threat-working-definition-antisemitism.md)**

### 8.1 Pre-codification senses (still in ordinary language)

| Sense | Rough content | Note |
|--------|----------------|------|
| **Religious anti-Judaism** | Theological polemic, conversionary pressure, exclusion from guilds or office | Not identical to modern racial antisemitism, but **overlaps** in violence and stereotype. |
| **Racial / political “antisemitism” (late 19th c.)** | Pseudoscientific “Jewish race,” conspiracy tropes, party antisemitism (e.g. Wilhelm Marr’s political coinage in German) | Supplies **iconography** later copied by flyers and memes. |
| **State antisemitism** | Legal disabilities (Tsarist Pale, numerus clausus), quotas, pogroms, genocide | **Material** context for §2 of this dossier. |
| **Anti-Zionism / anti-Israel politics (contested boundary)** | Opposition to a state or ideology vs. hostility to **Jews as Jews** | Precisely where **modern definitions disagree** (§8.5). |

### 8.2 Lineage: European Monitoring Centre (2005) → IHRA (2016)

- **2005 — European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) “working definition.”** A short core text plus **illustrative examples** (including several on **Israel**). The document was later **withdrawn** as an EUMC “working definition” but its text **carried forward** in civil-society use and informed later drafting. (See historical overview at [Working Definition of Antisemitism — Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Definition_of_Antisemitism) and primary-adjacent discussion in human-rights literature.)

- **2016 — International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) “non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism,”** adopted at the Bucharest plenary (**26 May 2016**). Official consolidated text and examples: [IHRA PDF](https://holocaustremembrance.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IHRA-non-legally-binding-working-definition-of-antisemitism-1.pdf).

**IHRA core (verbatim):**

> Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.

The IHRA instrument adds **eleven examples** (some concern **speech about Israel**). It explicitly states that **“criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”** Adoption is **voluntary** (governments, universities, sports bodies); it is **not** a treaty and **not** by itself criminal law—though jurisdictions may **reference** it in policy or hate-crime guidance.

### 8.3 Nexus (United States, ~2021–2023)

The **Nexus Document** and related **Nexus Project** materials (University of California–affiliated scholarship; white paper **May 2023**) offer a **complementary** framework: how to tell **when** criticism of Israel or Zionism **crosses** into antisemitism **in context**, without equating **all** political anti-Zionism with bigotry. The **U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism** (May 2023) names IHRA as one useful tool and **welcomes Nexus** as a resource for **education and clarity**. See [Nexus Project — definitions](https://nexusproject.us/nexus-resources/nexus-definition/) and the strategy PDF via [White House archive copy](https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/U.S.-National-Strategy-to-Counter-Antisemitism.pdf).

**Contrast in one sentence:** IHRA lists **stand-alone examples** (hotly debated as to scope); Nexus stresses **nexus**—**linked harms**, patterns, and **Jewish-targeting**—rather than treating single slogans as dispositive.

### 8.4 Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA) — March **2021**

Issued by a large group of **scholars** in Jewish studies, Holocaust studies, and Middle East studies as a **non-legally binding alternative** to IHRA. Official site: [jerusalemdeclaration.org](https://jerusalemdeclaration.org/).

**JDA core definition (verbatim):**

> Antisemitism is discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews (or Jewish institutions as Jewish).

The JDA adds **fifteen guidelines**, including sections that list conduct that is **on the face of it antisemitic** versus conduct that is **on the face of it not antisemitic** in Israel–Palestine debates (e.g. it states that **BDS is not, in and of itself, antisemitic**; that **“double standard”** criticism alone is **not** sufficient; that **evidence-based** state criticism is permissible). The preamble argues IHRA is **unclear**, **over-broad in application**, and has **fuelled controversy** that **weakens** anti-antisemitism work.

### 8.5 Why the definitions war matters for historical quotation

| Axis | IHRA-aligned concern | JDA / civil-liberties-aligned concern |
|------|----------------------|--------------------------------------|
| **Flyers like §5** | Recycling **Jewish power / Bolshevik** tropes can fall under **conspiracy** and **collective blame** examples. | **Context:** academic or forensic **reproduction** of primary sources may still need **framing** so it is not read as **endorsement** of the trope. |
| **Scholarly or NC writing** | Some argue **sharp criticism of Israel** or **Zionism** should be monitored with IHRA examples. | JDA/Nexus warn against **chilling** legitimate **rights-based** or **anti-nationalist** speech; dispute whether **certain** IHRA examples **conflate** policy opposition with antisemitism. |
| **Institutional adoption** | Many states and bodies **endorse IHRA** for training and diplomacy. | **Faculty unions**, **human-rights lawyers**, and **Palestine-solidarity** networks often **oppose mandatory IHRA** on **speech and hiring** grounds. |

**Takeaway for this dossier:** Verifying **what a 1919 newspaper actually said** (§3–4) is **orthogonal** to, but **politically entangled** with, which **definition** a reader uses to classify **reprinting** that material today. Cite **primaries**; separate **historical description** from **normative accusation**; when operating inside an IHRA-adopting institution, add **scholarly framing** explicit enough to pass **context-sensitive** review.

### 8.6 Further reading (selected)

- IHRA: [Working definition PDF](https://holocaustremembrance.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IHRA-non-legally-binding-working-definition-of-antisemitism-1.pdf).
- JDA: [jerusalemdeclaration.org](https://jerusalemdeclaration.org/).
- Nexus: [nexusproject.us — Nexus definition](https://nexusproject.us/nexus-resources/nexus-definition/).
- U.S. National Strategy (2023): [White House PDF](https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/U.S.-National-Strategy-to-Counter-Antisemitism.pdf).
- Historical line on EUMC → IHRA: [Wikipedia — Working Definition of Antisemitism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Definition_of_Antisemitism) (convenient chronology; follow footnotes to primary sources for serious work).

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## 9. Sources (this dossier)

- *Jewish Chronicle*, London, **4 April 1919**, leader “Peace, War – and Bolshevism,” p. 7 — [Internet Archive full text](https://archive.org/details/B-001-018-446).
- *The American Hebrew*, New York, **10 September 1920** (date per IA clipping artifact) — quoted paragraph: [Internet Archive image item](https://archive.org/details/the-bolshevik-revolution-was-the-product-of-jewish-brains-american-hebrew); full serial: [HathiTrust catalog](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100113118).

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Keywords: #Investigation #JewishChronicle #AmericanHebrew #Bolshevism #1919 #1920 #PrimarySources #Verified #QuoteGraphic #Inventory #Antisemitism #IHRA #JDA #Nexus #Definitions #ParadigmThreatWorkingDefinitionAntisemitism