The Cosmopolitans

Figure 1: Caricature of Rootless cosmopolitan.
1949 "Krokodil" magazine cover. Source

This is a hilarious article that I came across on THINKPROGRESS that illustrates the sensitivity of the Jewish lobby in the United States to remarks that are viewed as anti-semitic. It begins with the headline:

Missouri GOP Senator trots out anti-Semitic trope 

during speech before national conservative group

The article continues:

On Tuesday this week, freshman Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) made an appearance at the National Conservatism Conference to deliver the keynote address. His remarks predictably targeted progressive lawmakers and the principles of liberalism in the United States — specifically, he focused his ire on the traditional enclaves of the country’s “elite,” the largest cities that tend to skew more Democratic and forward-thinking. 

Except Hawley didn’t use the term “city-dweller,” or “urban” or even “coastal elites” to describe the subject of his enmity. He used, repeatedly and often, the word “cosmopolitan.” 

On its face, the word is inoffensive and unremarkable. But in the wrong context — indeed, in the context in which Hawley used it on Tuesday — the word has deeply anti-Semitic subtext. 

In his prepared remarks, Hawley at various points decried the “cosmopolitan consensus,” the “cosmopolitan elite,” the “cosmopolitan class,” and the “cosmopolitan economy,” and more broadly took exception to the “cosmopolitan agenda” that is supposedly at the root of the country’s yawning political divide.

The executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Bureau-American Jewish Committee commented:

[References to a] shadowy elite class destroying the country from within, loyal only to ‘the global community,’ sound to many in the Jewish community eerily reminiscent of speeches from Germany in the 1930s.

Predictably "the state’s chapter of the Anti-Defamation League in St. Louis also took strong exception to Hawley’s remarks" as well. I think that many conservative politicians, who aren't committed Christian Zionists, recognise the threat the Jewish elite pose to the security and well-being of the United States. Probably many Christian Zionists recognise the threat as well but put the fulfilment of end-times prophecy ahead of their country's interest.

The problem for politicians is that it's political suicide to identify the "shadowy elite class destroying the country from within" as being comprised mainly of Jews. The issue has to be raised obliquely. This is what may YouTube alternative news sites resort to so as to avoid having their channel shut down. Terms like "the global elite", "the cabal", "the globalists", "the puppet masters" and so on are used. Hawley's use of the term "cosmopolitan" is in that vein. He is a "freshman" after all and at this early stage of his career he probably thinks he can make a difference.

However, the term "cosmopolitan" and specifically "rootless cosmopolitan" has a long history as I've now discovered. Figure 1 shows a caricature of the "rootless cosmopolitan" taken from a 1949 Soviet magazine cover. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia about the use of the term:

Rootless cosmopolitan was a pejorative Soviet euphemism widely used during Soviet anti-Semitic campaign of 1948–1953, which culminated in the "exposure" of the non-existent Doctors' plot. The term "rootless cosmopolitan" referred mostly to Jewish intellectuals, as an accusation of their lack of patriotism, i.e., lack of full allegiance to the Soviet Union. The campaign against "rootless cosmopolitans" began in 1946, when Joseph Stalin in his speech in Moscow attacked writers who were ethnic Jews. The expression was coined in the 19th century by Russian literary critic Vissarion Belinsky to describe writers who lacked Russian national character.

The Wikipedia article is an interesting read and reveals how Uncle Joe went too far in his attacks on Jews and suffered the ultimate penalty.

The Jewish lobby's condemnation of Hawley's cosmopolitan remarks shows how humourless and fanatical it has become in defending "the Jews". The lobby is no longer helpful to Jewish interests and its witch-hunting is in fact becoming harmful. The Jews have always had a wry sense of humour that is well-illustrated by the flier shown in Figure 2, advertising a Jewish get-together in London (website).

Figure 2

The Jews organising this were not afraid of seeing themselves as "rootless cosmopolitans" with the gathering described thus:

Jewdas’ countercultural revolution rumbled on with the incarnation of the rootless cosmopolitan yeshiva. Deep under London Bridge station, the shunt lounge became a hub of radical and subversive Jewish thought. Something between a salon, a beit midrash and a twisted cabaret club, the yeshiva was filled with those who like their Jewishness iconoclastic, countercultural and provocative. Debate filled the cavernous archways and argument reverberated into the night. Ears strained to hear the details of complex arguments and people mingled from table to table absorbing a dizzying range of ideas. The strains of dark accordion klezmer met those who stayed until the end. No one left unscathed.

A Yeshiva is apparently a school for Talmudic studies. Interestingly, one the speakers on the night was John Rose, speaking on the topic of "Liberating Jewish History from its Zionist Stranglehold". Doubtless the ADL would have condemned this "iconoclastic, countercultural and provocative" gathering as anti-semitic.