EXACTLY Like The First Thing We Learn About Wolfsheim Is That He Is A) Jewish And B) Money Hungry Like????

EXACTLY like the first thing we learn about Wolfsheim is that he is a) Jewish and b) money hungry like???? If it ain't and obvious stereotype than idk what is

I don't think we talk about the antisemitism of The Great Gatsby enough. Like, before reading the book I was very prepared for the sexism and gayness, but I didn't have any idea what would be coming with Meyer Wolfsheim

Meyer Wolfsheim is a greedy Jewish mafia person who has definitely killed people over money, done corrupt and sketchy business dealings, and may or may not have killed Gatsby himself.

He is introduced when Gatsby invites Nick to a business lunch meeting and at that meeting Wolfsheim tells a whole lot of stories of sketchy business deals, people he's killed multiple of whom were killed for money-related reasons, and some violent (money-related) family drama. After referencing a deal he has with Gatsby he leaves and Gatsby says that Wolfsheim was the guy who rigged the 1919 world series. This isn't just significant for the "Jews control everything" set of conspiracy theories but also because it's referencing a real guy, Arnold Rothstein, who was the head of the Jewish mafia and accused of rigging the world cup in 1919 (there wasn't enough evidence to convict though)

At this point, Nick thinks that Gatsby is the most perfect amazing person of all time except for the fact that he works with Jews. He really genuinely believes that Nick is perfect other than his deals with Jews.

Later on, Gatsby is dead and Nick has reason to suspect it was Wolfsheim. He describes the death as a holocaust which is problematic but not for the reason you probably think. Before the Holocaust happened, holocuast referred to burnt sacrifices by the Greeks and Jews. So here, Nick is comparing Gatsby's death to a Jewish sacrifice which falls under the whole barbaric talmudic rituals and blood libel forms of antisemtism

Then Nick goes to Wolfsheim's house to invite him to the funeral. He fights with his wife who tells Nick he isn't home and when Wolfsheim does come to the door he says he can't come cause he can't associate himself with any deaths or he might be accused of something. There is also an implication that he's hiding from debt collectors.

The entire book is criticizing rich people's lifestyles but ends up having the message of, rich people crazy but overall good and while they may do bad things it's justifiable cause most of them fought in WW1 and are having a mental crisis. Like can you really blame Gatsby or Daisy for that hit-and-run where they killed someone cause Daisy was having a mental breakdown and Gatsby couldn't just not let the woman he has a big major crush on drive just cause she doesn't know how to drive and was in a bit of a violent mood. However, the rich do work with Jews and that's bad, bad for everyone including them. See Jews like Wolfsheim ultimately control the rich cause if they don't want to make deals with Jews they can just kill them. Look at that, Gatsby is dead cause he decided to do business deals with Jews such a shame he had such a major flaw like works with Jews otherwise maybe he would've been able to move on from Daisy and stop borderline stalking her.

like please, the antismetism of this book is crazy. And I'm not saying like don't read it cause of that. I'm saying we should be reading this book and analyzing the antisemitism. Cause that antisemitism is really blatant and a really great example of antisemitism in the 1920s US and what rhetoric they used at all. Like we should be talking about that portrayal and how antisemitism today presents in similar or different ways.