Antisemitic tropes are back on stage again
Of all the stereotypes about Jews in the lexicon of antisemitism, none is as commonplace or enduring as the one about Jews and money. From Shylock and Fagin to Joe Rogan’s podcast and TikTok videos about the Rothschilds, the idea that Jews have a unique taste for acquiring wealth is the one thing that people think they “know” about them. Yet this historic anti-Jewish trope seems able to hide in plain sight, in the most surprising of places.
The Lehman Trilogy, which has returned to the London stage, tells the story of the Lehman Brothers bank from its origins as a fabric store in Alabama to its collapse in the 2008 financial crash, the ultimate symbol of unregulated and uncontrollable banking. This award-winning, acclaimed play is an enthralling piece of theatre with five star reviews and a clutch of Tony awards. Unfortunately, it is also profoundly antisemitic. Not in a crude way – a clumsy turn of phrase here, a jarring stereotype there – but in its innermost essence, connecting a modern audience to malevolent beliefs about Jews and money that are buried deep within western thought. Most striking of all, none of the people responsible for writing, acting, directing or producing this play seem remotely aware, and most reviews have missed it entirely. I’m happy to accept that none of them are antisemitic, but it is as if the idea that Jews love money and power is – to use an appropriate phrase – priced in.
The Lehman Trilogy is, on one level, a morality tale about modern capitalism, a story of greed and financial trickery that left countless ordinary people impoverished or homeless. It is also saturated with Jewishness.
We are told in the opening lines that Henry Lehman is “a circumcised Jew”. The brothers repeatedly cry “Baruch Hashem” (“Blessed is God”) as they build their fortune. They “sit shiva” when someone dies, pray, quote Talmud, dream about Jewish festivals. When Philip Lehman chooses a bride, he assigns the name of a Hebrew month to each of the 12 candidates. Their children excel not just at school, but at Hebrew school – where some of their fellow students, naturally, bear the names of other famous Jewish banking families. It is gratuitous and overwhelming, far beyond what is necessary to convey the biographical fact that the Lehmans were Jewish. It leaves you feeling that this is not only a play about bankers who are Jews, but a play about Jews who are bankers. And what does it tell us about these Jews?
Mainly that they love money and will do anything to get more of it. “We are merchants of money”, says Philip Lehman. “We use money to make more money.” Mayer Lehman is not just a millionaire, but “a Jewish millionaire”. Emanuel Lehman woos his bride by