The Carousel of Caberet

The Oscar-winning film Cabaret was set in 1931 Germany. It's an amazing movie, with dance choreography by the late great Bob Fosse, a stellar performance by Liza Minnelli, and some of the most beautiful costumes and scenery you have ever seen. The flavor and diversity of the German people, from milk-fed country blondes to bizarre, Dieter-like, monocle-wearing club goers is really captured well.

The fabulous actor Joel Grey as the Cabaret-act Master of Ceremonies must be one of the most underrated performances in movie history. Everything about him is brilliant and transcendent. This is not a movie for children; perhaps that why I never saw the whole thing when I was younger.

But beyond all the dance and singing and sets and lighting - is the parallel story of strong nationalism gradually being overtaken by fascism at this time, and the whole thing snowballing into full-blown Nazi Germany. The imagery of this film tells this part of the story well. Yet there is no more cautionary tale than the cause championed by the quiet-mannered, Oxford-based traveling professor.

With the German nationalism came a great bit of fear - after all, the Kaiser had been killed and there was war and unrest all over Europe and the continent. This was when fingers were pointed and people looked for others to blame. This was a dangerous time.

We all know about the antisemitism of the Nazis - how they singled out and killed Jews, as well as other groups undesirable to themselves; gypsies, homosexuals, other ethnic races. But the movie makes a point about what many of the German bourgeois were saying around their tea tables about the Jewish people.

One of the ancient themes of antisemitism is non-Jews' issues with Jews 'controlling too much of the world's money'. Relegated to certain historic and 'looked down-upon' tasks, such as changing money and lending money, ancient Jews fell into banking as much by lack of choices as particular affinity. Yet generations later, other cultures such as the Germans came to fear, resent and dare I say, envy them for this vocation.

So there you have it. Antisemitism not based on the idea of a too-aggressive an Israel, or not seeing Christ as the One or any other bigotry or what have you -- antisemitism with its roots in jealousy - plain financial jealousy. That's dangerous. So at least in the movie, the sweet blonde English Oxford professor has the guts to tell his German roommate his idea about Jews and money was rubbish, poppycock. But let us not here, for the moment, forget the powerful karma and danger of jealousy.