What are the chances that it was a Jew?

[Harry D]

There's a Jewish connection that runs right through the Whitechapel murders, what with the contentious Goulston St graffito, "Lipski", Robert Anderson's memoirs, and a series of Jewish loonies (Kosminski, Kaminsky, Cohen, Wirtkofsky) all in the frame.

How likely do you think it is that Jack WAS an immigrant Jew living in Whitechapel? Or do you think this was simply a case of ethnic prejudice?

[lynn cates]

rumour

Hello Harry. Good question.

Strongly favour the latter option.

Initially, (after Hanbury) there was talk of a "foreign looking man" and a "foreign sounding man" being implicated. These notions were sometimes conflated with "Jewish."

Behold, the birth of a rumour.

Cheers.
LC

[GUT]

There's a Jewish connection that runs right through the Whitechapel murders, what with the contentious Goulston St graffito, "Lipski", Robert Anderson's memoirs, and a series of Jewish loonies (Kosminski, Kaminsky, Cohen, Wirtkofsky) all in the frame.

How likely do you think it is that Jack WAS an immigrant Jew living in Whitechapel? Or do you think this was simply a case of ethnic prejudice?

G'day Harry, in my opinion as good a chance as it being a gentile, but no better.

[DVV]

G'day Harry, in my opinion as good a chance as it being a gentile, but no better.

Indeed, Gut, all the so-called "Jewish-connections" points to a Gentile.

Cheers

[pinkmoon]

If in doubt blame the Jews that idea has been adopted by a lot of people in a lot of countries over the centuries.

[Ginger]

Pretty good odds, I'd say. Lots of Jews in Whitechapel at the time, so ignoring any other factors, the odds of any given criminal being a Jew are higher than average there. Also, a fair number of witnesses described a 'Jewish looking' or 'foreign looking' suspect.

[pinkmoon]

Pretty good odds, I'd say. Lots of Jews in Whitechapel at the time, so ignoring any other factors, the odds of any given criminal being a Jew are higher than average there. Also, a fair number of witnesses described a 'Jewish looking' or 'foreign looking' suspect.

I don't think any of the descriptions given can be taken to seriously.

[GUT]

G'day Ginger

Pretty good odds, I'd say. Lots of Jews in Whitechapel at the time, so ignoring any other factors, the odds of any given criminal being a Jew are higher than average there. Also, a fair number of witnesses described a 'Jewish looking' or 'foreign looking' suspect.

Presupposes that anyone described by witnesses was the Ripper as say opposed to the last customer before the ripper strikes.

know that the last person to have seen the victim is a suspect, almost without fail, but is not always the killer.

[John Wheat]

I'd say the chances of Jack being Jewish are low.

[The Good Michael]

I'd say it all depends upon where he lived. If he lived in the Wentworth buildings, I'd say 75% or higher chance.


Mike

[Abby Normal]

There's a Jewish connection that runs right through the Whitechapel murders, what with the contentious Goulston St graffito, "Lipski", Robert Anderson's memoirs, and a series of Jewish loonies (Kosminski, Kaminsky, Cohen, Wirtkofsky) all in the frame.

How likely do you think it is that Jack WAS an immigrant Jew living in Whitechapel? Or do you think this was simply a case of ethnic prejudice?

Hi
I think that there is a small chance the ripper was Jewish and that is only based on the chance that it was Kosminsky. After all, three senior police officers do mention his name and he is the only suspect that has a shred of any possible evidence against him-a possible ID.

That being said, it probably has more to do with ethnic prejudice starting with the public feeling against Jews at the time in general and then Andersons opinion specifically. I can't help feeling there has been a wild goose chase after a crazy Jew starting with Anderson, through fidos Cohen theory all the way up to today with the various Jewish suspects being put forth based only on the fact that they were Jewish and in an asylum.

The shout of lipski by a very viable ripper suspect, the Jewish framing by the GSG and the dearth of Jewish described witnesses all point to that the ripper was probably a local gentile although of course it's possible he was a Jew.

[Abby Normal]

Pretty good odds, I'd say. Lots of Jews in Whitechapel at the time, so ignoring any other factors, the odds of any given criminal being a Jew are higher than average there. Also, a fair number of witnesses described a 'Jewish looking' or 'foreign looking' suspect.

Hi ginger
Only one witness described the suspect as Jewish, Hutchinson, and only one witness describe the suspect as foreign, long.

[Barnaby]

Were any of the victims Jewish? Among the Gentile unfortunates of Whitechapel, was there prejudice against soliciting themselves to Jewish men? I'd rather doubt it given these women were literally just trying to survive, but one never knows as prejudice runs deep.

[Damaso Marte]

I'm in the "Israel Schwartz made it all up" camp so I don't dwell much on the Lipski comment. Likewise I think Hutchinson is full of it so I don't think much about A-man. The GCG is so ambiguous that it can be interpreted as either philo-semitic or anti-semitic, and of course we have no idea if the killer wrote it or not.

I personally believe that the sighting of a "foreign man" with Chapman is credible. I suspect that the % of foreigners in Whitechapel who were Jewish is higher than the % of the overall population that was Jewish. And if you buy Stride as a Ripper victim, you have a killer who hangs out in the vicinity of Jewish clubs.

Also many of the most credible suspects happen to be Jewish: Kosminsky, Cohen, etc.

So to me the answer is "maybe".

EDIT: when discussing the potential Jewishness of the suspect, one thing that annoys me is people making the argument of "well, Jewish law states [x], and the killer does [-x], therefore he probably isn't Jewish". This ignores two key facts: (1) many Jews in Whitechapel were secular, even atheistic and didn't obey religious laws; and (2) if you're a serial killer you're breaking a pretty big law in any religion, so why should we expect you to keep the rest?

[lynn cates]

training

Hello Damaso. Intelligent post.

I wonder if the suggestion is not so much one of Jewish law but of early childhood training? I have had Jewish students were were self-described as atheists, and yet they could not write "God" in an essay but substituted "G-d."

Cheers.
LC