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Jews & the Japanese. Ben-Ami Shillony
Читать онлайн.Название Jews & the Japanese
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781462903962
Автор произведения Ben-Ami Shillony
Издательство Ingram
Indeed, both Jews and Japanese have used material gain to compensate themselves for various shortcomings and to prove themselves to the outside world. The Rothschild family attracted much attention in the last two centuries. An agent for the court in Frankfurt in the eighteenth century, the family by the beginning of the nineteenth century had opened financial branches in London, Paris, Naples, and Vienna. By the middle of the nineteenth century the Rothschilds were managing banks, floating government bonds, and building railways all over Europe, and had amassed a fortune sufficient to make them one of the richest families in the world. Money provided the Rothschilds with entry into a level of society hitherto denied ordinary Jews. In 1822 Salomon Rothschild was ennobled in Austria, and in 1861 his son Anselm was appointed to the Austrian House of Lords. The same year Mayer Rothschild was elected to the North German Reichstag and shortly afterwards was appointed to the Prussian House of Lords. In 1858 Lionel Nathan Rothschild became the first Jewish member of Parliament in Britain, and in 1885 his son Nathaniel became the first Jew of the British peerage, while in France the Rothschilds were made barons. The fact that the Rothschilds were Jews made them more conspicuous and less secure, and they clung together to insure their position and influence.
The closest Japanese equivalent to the Rothschilds was the Mitsui family. Starting with a textile shop in seventeenth-century Edo, the Mitsuis branched into moneylending in the major cities and by the end of the century became the financial agent of the shogun. Like Nathan Mayer Rothschild, who became rich by backing the winning British army against Napoleon, so the House of Mitsui became rich by backing the winning Imperial Army against the shogun. Following the Meiji Restoration, the Mitsui family established banks, set up a trading company, ventured into mining, invested in shipping, and acquired industries. By the beginning of the twentieth century Mitsui was the largest business combine in Japan. Unlike the Rothschilds, however, the Mitsui family did not continue to run its own enterprises itself. After the Meiji Restoration actual management was in the hands of competent employees who were not family members. No member of the Mitsui family made a personal impact on modern Japan. It was rather the Mitsui combine, the Mitsui companies, and the Mitsui managers who wielded the power and gained the fame.
Many people in the West regarded the Rothschild and Mitsui families as representative of the Jews and the Japanese, personifying their alleged attachment to material values and desire to control. Indeed, members of the Rothschild family often served as leaders of various influential Jewish organizations, and managers of the Mitsui conglomerate wielded influence over the Japanese government. The Rothschilds and the Mitsuis represented, however, only one aspect of Jewish and Japanese societies. Other aspects, less conspicuous but no less important, complemented and balanced this desire for material success. In traditional Jewish society the most prestigious members were not the rich but the learned. The brightest children were encouraged to become talmudic scholars rather than prosperous merchants.
Charity occupied a central place in Jewish life and the Talmud equates its importance with all the other commandments combined. In the Middle Ages charity was the most important activity of Jewish communal life and one that enabled the Jews to survive great hardships. The institution of charity was carried over into the modern era and is still widely practiced by Jews all over the world. The so-called "greedy Jew" has often been eager to give away a substantial part of his money not only to help his less fortunate brethren but also to help less fortunate gentiles. Jews have been among the leading philanthropists of modern times. The Rothschilds built schools and hospitals in many countries, and the Guggenheim family donated large amounts of money for the promotion of arts and sciences in the United States. Julius Rosenwald, an American Jewish businessman, established thousands of rural schools for black children and built model housing for blacks in Chicago at the beginning of this century.
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