My grandfather was in Russia during the revolution, as a Jew under the Czar, things were terrible. They could not own property and he lost his brother and brother in law during the Pogroms, taken to the forest and beheaded for no reason. Under those conditions, they were looking for any alternative and socialism was the only viable option. It openly challenging the Czar, no other movement was ever successful. He witnessed Trotsky leading an army into his town and speaking to everyone how he was going to change things, sounded romantic, join the revolution and end the tyranny to the Jewish people. Heck, Trotsky was a Jew and so were the commanders around him something never heard of under the Czar. When he went home with his mom and asked her what she thought, she said "Willie, if you think we have it bad, you ain't seen nothing yet" She was a smart woman and could see through Trotsky, but others weren't. So the romance that many have / had with socialism was purely to escape the Czar. American Jewish Millionaires even financed Japan in the Russian Japanese war. Jews petitioned Wilson during WWI to join the side of the Germans in opposition to the Czar. During WWII the allies did nothing to help any Jews, after the war, kept them in Displaced Person Camps and stopped the movement of these Jews to Israel. Truman while he takes credit for Israel, boycotted the sale of weapons knowing full well that the British armed the Arabs and encouraged them to attack the Jews. Who came to Israel's rescue, Stalin of all people. So in conclusion, one can understand why the world drove Jews to Socialism and while socialism was never good to Jews, they were in some ways a lot better than FDR, Truman, Hitler, and the British were.
