Remarkable, right? That one man should have achieved so much. Become world famous for how much money he made. And for how much money he gave away. And for his name now a symbol – a symbol of anti-Semitism. For about five decades George Soros has been making a fortune. For about three decades, George Soros has been giving away a fortune. And for about one decade, both in Europe and in the United States, the name George Soros, as in, for example, “Soros-backed,” has become synonymous with Jew-baiting.
Soros is an American and a Jew who was born in Hungary. For frequently and lavishly contributing over the years to liberal causes in East and Central Europe he has aroused the unrelenting ire of nationalist and populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. And for frequently and lavishly contributing over the years to liberal causes in the United States he has aroused the unrelenting ire of nationalist and populist former president Donald Trump. Even in the last year Orban has accused Soros of being a permanent political puppet master who has “ruined the lives of tens of millions” with currency speculation. And even in the last month Trump has accused Soros of “hand-picking” and “funding” the career of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who had the temerity to indict Trump.
Soros is not only one of the richest men in the world, he is also one of the most ambitious. As Todd Pittinsky and I wrote in our book, Leaders Who Lust, it never sufficed for Soros to make a mountain of money. His ambition was far greater and much more far-reaching. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Soros’s goal has been nothing short of changing societies at their core. In Europe from authoritarianism to liberalism in countries such as Hungary and Poland. And in the United States from politics and policies that are more right-wing to those that are more left wing. In these quests Soros has never let up. Nor as is the nature of leaders who lust – leaders whose drive is unstoppable, whose thirst is unquenchable – will he ever.
Which raises the unsettling question of how George Soros went from being a leader in finance and philanthropy to being a symbol of anti-Semitism – more of a symbol of anti-Semitism than any other single individual anywhere in the world. To answer with precision how this happened is impossible. Rising tides of hate are elusive, impossible to explain in a single stroke. This is not, however, to suggest they are not real. In 2022 was a significant increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes in the United States, for example in New York City, where attacks on Jews were up 41 percent compared with a year earlier.
Attacks on George Soros for ostensibly pulling the strings behind the scenes have become blurred with attacks on Jews for being, well, Jews. Whatever the connection between the two, if any, it has become connection by implication and association.
Anti-Semitism is ancient – it is called the “longest hatred.” Soros, in contrast, epitomizes a current phenomenon, especially in the United States where certainly post-Holocaust, since the end of the Second World War, blatant evidence of hatred of Jews had diminished to near the vanishing point. But those days are over. Soros’s name now comes up regularly, used in the United States by right-wing figures, especially prominent Republicans (for example, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis) and hosts on Fox News, to connote loathing of his commitments to liberal candidates and causes and also, certainly in some cases, by extension or implication an unspecified antipathy to Jews more generally.
To be clear, not everyone who mentions the name Soros is anti-Semitic. Nor does everyone who hears it even know that Soros is Jewish. But enough do – the very frequency with which the name is uttered distinguishes “Soros” from every other American political funder, left, right, or center. Jonathan Greenblatt, C.E.O, of the Ant-Defamation League, a Jewish Civil Rights group, put it this way: “When a person or a political party repeatedly and relentlessly makes wild claims such as that there is a ‘cabal of globalists backed by Soros that is destroying our country,’ that is invoking a classical anti-Jewish conspiracy theory, and it should be condemned.”
On the one hand it is, of course, reasonable and acceptable to criticize Soros for his partisan donations to liberal, even progressive causes and the Democratic party. Soros is, in fact, by far the largest single donor to the party and its candidates. But on the other hand, this is not, as Charles C. W. Cooke has argued in the National Review, about “shutting down the debate.” Instead this is about the regular invoking of the name “Soros” which has led, fairly or unfairly, to suspicions of Jews more generally. The connection is between Jews who are perceived to be “globalists” and “cosmopolitans” and Soros who is perceived to be a “globalist” and “cosmopolitan.” And it is between Jews who are perceived to be liberal and left-leaning and Soros who is perceived to be liberal and left-leaning. But these connections are tenuous to the point of being specious. The connection that counts – that is unsettling and even upsetting – is between past anti-Semitic tropes and present anti-Soros tropes.
Soros has come – as a nonagenarian, no less – to epitomize everything purportedly crafty and conspiratorial about Jews now not only historically but contemporaneously. Just as Jew-hatred has historically stemmed from Jews being seen as if not all-powerful then at least as too powerful, so Soros-hatred stems from his being seen as if not all-powerful then at least as too powerful. Again, Soros is using his pile of money to support those, and that in which he believes. But numberless Republicans are doing the same and they are not being singled out or called out – identified, repeatedly, by name. Which is precisely why, especially given the sensitivities on anti-Semitism, you would think, or maybe not, that Republicans would cease and desist from blowing their by now familiar dog whistle.
George Soros is no saint. But he survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary in Hungary to become one of the most brilliant, successful, and yes, generous men of the late 20th and early 21st century. If someone had told him when he was young that he was destined to be first at the cutting edge of finance, second at the cutting edge of philanthropy, and third at the cutting edge of a resurgence of European and American anti-Semitism, he might well have believed the first two. But he would never, could never, have believed the last.