Debunking the David Weissman/B’nai B’rith Messenger Citation on Stalin’s Jewishness

Writing my article on whether Joseph Stalin spoke Yiddish yesterday (1) I came across a reference attributed to David Weissman in the ‘B’nai B’rith Messenger’ of 3rd March 1950 which is claimed to mention/prove the following by the website ‘Death of Communism’:

‘David Weissman, in an article in the B’NAI B’RITH MESSENGER (Mar. 3, 1950), stated that Stalin is a Jew. Stalin spoke Yiddish, & had three Jewish wives,’ (2)

I was originally unable to get a high-quality reproduction of the article concerned but could make out that it referenced Stalin’s jewishness, so I assumed ‘Death of Communism’s’ citation was at least somewhat accurate.

Upon acquiring a high-resolution copy of the same page I have discovered that this is not the case instead – to be charitable to ‘Death of Communism’ I believe they simply reproduced this ‘evidence’ from other sources without checking it – the citation massively misrepresents what Weissman is saying in is opinion piece ‘Here’s the Point’.

What he actually wrote was:

‘A former Soviet General claims that Joseph Stalin is of Jewish ancestry. (Remember the fascists in this country who tried to Judaize Franklin Delino Roosevelt? Same type of mentality’). Bet a dollar that the guys who’ll throw it up to us, will forget that Jesus Christ was also a Jew.’ (3)

For the sake of transparency here is the high-resolution image of the publication and article in question:

Clearly then Weissman is not saying Stalin was a jew rather he mentions that a ‘former Soviet General’ – we don’t know which one he is referring to - claims Stalin had jewish ancestry, but he states in effect that this is nonsense (the reference to FDR’s alleged jewishness) and accuses proponents of this theory of being hypocritical Christians who won’t mention that Jesus was also jewish.

There is no mention by Weissman of Stalin speaking Yiddish or Stalin’s wives.

Therefore, we can see that the Weissman quotation does not support Stalin’s Jewishness but actually opposes it – which is the opposite of ‘Death of Communism’s’ claim – and never mentions Stalin speaking Yiddish or Stalin’s wives.

Thus, we can see that Weissman is not a viable source on any of these three subjects let alone support the claims made using his article.

References

(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/did-joseph-stalin-speak-yiddish

(2) https://www.deathofcommunism.com/stalin-the-jew/

(3) David Weissman, ‘Here’s the Point’, B’nai B’rith Messenger, 3rd March 1950, p.5