Epstein and Israel

David Klion has published a convincing article in Jewish Currents exploring why there were so many Jewish men in Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit. The subtitle of the essay, “Epstein relied on Jewish in-group bonds to cultivate the network that facilitated his crimes,” basically captures the whole argument.

That Jews in America form an affinity group, which then confers professional benefits, is not surprising. Other ethnic groups do it too — see this research on how Vietnamese Americans built an outsized presence in the nail salon business.

From the paper:

The article addresses how Vietnamese immigrant women developed an urban employment niche in the beauty industry, in manicuring. They are shown to have done so by creating a market for professional nail care, through the transformation of nailwork into what might be called McNails, entailing inexpensive, walk-in, impersonal service, in stand-alone salons, nationwide, and by making manicures and pedicures de riguer across class and racial strata. Vietnamese are shown to have simultaneously gained access to institutional means to surmount professional manicure credentializing barriers, and to have developed formal and informal ethnic networks that fueled their growing monopolization of jobs in the sector, to the exclusion of non-Vietnamese.

But there’s more to the Epstein story.

First, the moral chasm that exists at the heart of Epstein’s circle. How is it that many rich men and many powerful men were able to suspend the ordinary morality that governs so many of us (“Don’t consort with pedophiles” for example)? Is an affinity group sufficient for explaining what was going on here?

The second meaningful question goes to the Israeli connection. That Epstein had different kinds of relationships with senior Israeli figures is well known. Drop Site News has a whole page dedicated to the relationship between Epstein and Israel (the Israelis installed and maintained the security system at Epstein’s house in New York!). Many of the Jewish American men, like Alan Dershowitz, that spent a lot of time with Epstein also had ties to Israel. But of course that could be explained through affinities. Epstein was a Zionist who had ties to Mossad; the other men in his circle may have just been Zionists. That’s explanation enough, but there may be more there.