Elon Musk is under fire for endorsing a tweet that argued, essentially, that Jews now get what they deserve for supporting many liberal movements that demonized white people. Is the criticism against Musk fair?

Yes.

Granted, too often, Musk’s detractors make unwarranted charges about his character and beliefs largely because they disagree with his politics. Make no mistake: Criticizing philanthropist George Soros’s public activism is no more antisemitic than condemning President Barack Obama’s policy record is racist or questioning former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s judgment is misogynistic. To play on the pitch of public debate requires both offense and defense. It is impossible to advocate controversial ideas but then dismiss debate as rooted in hate.

Ideas matter more than the people who make them do. The tendency of partisan opponents to invert this is a subtle acknowledgment that they cannot win arguments on their merits. This is why cancel culture is so dangerous at universities: It convinces professors, administrators, and students that they can impose their beliefs without the need to defend the indefensible.

So what makes Musk’s current controversy different?

A century ago, the United States and much of Europe were both in shock and panic because of the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Many communist agitators were Jewish, though Bolshevism was not a Jewish movement. The motivation for the Jewish embrace of the new order promised by the Bolsheviks was multifaceted. Most suffered discrimination under czarist rule. They were unequal from birth, preyed upon by Cossacks, raped, and murdered in the street. In urban areas, they faced a glass ceiling so low they might as well crawl. Communism promised, in theory, the equality that they craved, even though, in reality, the abuses made in the name of equity were worse than under the czars. True Bolsheviks were as infected by antisemitism as were the Cossacks and the Russian Orthodox church. The Soviets repressed every non-Russian minority, and most Russians as well, but the Jews most of all.

There was an old Soviet joke about a rare shipment of oranges delivered to a Moscow shop. A line formed before dawn as snow fell. At 8 a.m., the door opened, and a man announced there would not be enough oranges for all shoppers, so the Jews should go home. They grumbled and left. Four hours later, the door opened with the same message, only this time he instructed nonparty members to leave. More grumbling. Finally, at 4 p.m., the man apologized: There would be no oranges for anyone after all. One of the party members remaining in line grumbled to his neighbor, “See, the Jews have all the luck.”

Even as the Jews suffered disproportionately in the Soviet Union, the notion that they were responsible for the communist regime persisted. It painted an entire community as monolithic and absolved the vast majority of Bolshevik leaders and commissars who were neither Jewish nor particularly tolerant of Jews.

So it is with Musk today. Jews trend Democratic, historically because the country club set of Republicans long treated them with disdain. The same elite universities that refuse today to protect Jewish students against violence once upheld quotas to prevent many Jews from entering. In this, ironically, there was little difference between Yale University and Moscow State University, even as Republicans at the time painted Jews with the communist brush.

Times change. Many Jews embrace moderation, and they see the radicalism, intersectionality, and anti-Zionism of the progressive Left as off-putting. Whereas during the civil rights era, many Jews marched alongside black people, today, black progressives target them in their hour of need. As school boards normalized antisemitism and once again imposed de facto quotas on Asians and Jews under the guise of diversity and equity, many Jews were primed to abandon the Democratic Party. Had it not been for former President Donald Trump's histrionics, perhaps more would have.

To treat white people as a monolith is bigotry. To prioritize group identity over the individual, meanwhile, discounts individual agency and free will. Do some Jews support such ideas? Certainly. Many Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims do as well. Do all Jews? No. To suggest they do, as Musk has, is the same calumny as blaming all Jews for international communism. It scapegoats a community, and it demonizes. The Soviets mastered it. Charles Lindbergh-era nativists did, too. Musk should be better.

Michael Rubin ( @mrubin1971 ) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.