The Jewish Origins of Wonga.com

Those among my readership who are familiar with Britain and all things British will have probably heard of a now defunct particular short-term loans (aka pay day loans) company called Wonga. Wonga was a primarily internet-based brand of WDFC UK Limited that ceaselessly advertised itself in Britain. You saw their adverts everywhere: bus stops, televisions, the radio and on the tube in London. (1) It was difficult not to know about them and their legal loan-shark business.

This was exemplified in the fact that when Justin Welby - the Archbishop of Canterbury - publicly attacked the short-term loans industry then he singled out Wonga as the firm that he would use as his rhetorical focus. (2)

Another reason that Wonga has been singled out - other than the fact they are the best known of the bunch and expanded quickly before suddenly collapsing in 2020 due to the weight of lawsuits against it (but not before all the money had mysteriously disappeared) - (3) was that they had been on the receiving end of a large number of scandals relating to their business practices, including - but not limited to - the British government itself openly criticizing their use of exorbitant interest rates. (4)

What has put me in mind of these - to put it somewhat impolitely - absolute bastards is that they were discovered to have been engaging in illegal business practices in 2014 - specifically sending threatening debt collection letters from fake legal firms to their hard-up clients - and were required to pay a paltry £2.6 million in compensation for it (5) with no fine. (6)

It is perhaps not surprising to note these illegal practices grew up under the beady eye of Wonga's founders and until 2012 those in charge of its day-to-day business practices: Errol Damelin and Jonty Hurwitz. (7)

Now it is perhaps no surprise for anyone to learn that both Damelin and Hurwitz are jewish. (8)

Before he became Wonga's CEO (which he stepped down from in November 2013 but was still a board member till June 2014) (9) Damelin an investment banking background and spent years living in Israel. (10) Meanwhile Hurwitz was the brains behind Wonga's internet-based operation (Damelin clearly handled the banking bit) and formerly its Chief Technology Officer (till 2011 and was a board member till at least 2014): he is also obsessed with mysticism, modern art and mumbo jumbo apparently. (11)

Predictably the kosher conservatives of this world immediately tried to claim that any criticism of Wonga was 'anti-Semitism', (12) which is about as sound an argument as using a chocolate teapot to make your morning cuppa. For the very simple reason that just because jews own a major short-term loans company then it does not that follow the statement is 'anti-Semitic' (for one thing Brenden O'Neill is manifestly ignorant of what the term 'anti-Semitism' actually means) because it is an empirical observation not a judgement or argument with any values attached to it.

Nor is it 'anti-Semitic' to point out that the 'jewish banker' stereotype is based on empirical data, which can simply be grasped by reading some of the recent academic literature on the subject such as Bernard Wasserstein's 'On the Eve' and Jerry Muller's 'Capitalism and the Jews'.

But oh no O'Neill and his kind of myrmidon is far too busy pretending that jews haven't been disproportionately interested and involved in the banking industry (and no they weren't forced into it by the Catholic Church [that's an urban myth]) to put two and two together to get four. Instead they are far happier creating mythological mud pies to throw at critics of their paymasters.

References

(1) http://www.carlpackman.com/blog/2013/09/06/brenden-oneill-jumping-the-legal-loan-shark/

(2) http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cardsloans/article-2597754/Archbishop-Canterbury-Justin-Welby-wages-war-Wonga.html

(3) http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/as-benefits-dry-up-wonga-will-prosper-2013-could-be-the-year-of-the-payday-lender-8436932.html

(4) http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/opinion/there-is-such-a-thing-as-bad-publicity-ask-wonga/4007514.article

(5) http://online.wsj.com/articles/uk-payday-lender-wonga-fined-1403689249

(6) http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28012756

(7) http://www.openwonga.com/news-and-views/view/wongas-founder-steps-down-as-a-non-executive-director#.U6sprPldVlo

(8) http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100234383/the-crusade-against-wonga-is-in-danger-of-resurrecting-the-stereotype-of-the-avaricious-jewish-moneylender/

(9) http://www.openwonga.com/news-and-views/view/wongas-founder-steps-down-as-a-non-executive-director#.U6sprPldVlo

(10) http://www.theguardian.com/megas/errol-damelin

(11) http://www.jontyhurwitz.com/; https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/the-two-main-aspects-of-my-life-are-art-and-big-data-meet-jonty-hurwitz-the-geek-sculptor-who-founded-wonga-8615219.html

(12) http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100234383/the-crusade-against-wonga-is-in-danger-of-resurrecting-the-stereotype-of-the-avaricious-jewish-moneylender/