JWTruth.orgRecurso documentado de comparación
Buscar
Español

Esta página en

Solo en inglés

Todos los idiomas

Authority and accountability · Claim record

The Declaration stated that “the greatest and the most oppressive empire on earth is the Anglo-American empire” and that “it has been the commercial Jews of the British-American empire that have built up and carried on Big Business as a means of exploiting and oppressing the peoples of many nations”, and quoted a saying about New York that “The Jews own it, the Irish Catholics rule it, and the Americans pay the bills”.

Claim ID claim-authority-de33-commercial-jewsConcerns 25 June 1933Explicit statement
Explicit statement · 25 June 1933 Verified

The Declaration stated that “the greatest and the most oppressive empire on earth is the Anglo-American empire” and that “it has been the commercial Jews of the British-American empire that have built up and carried on Big Business as a means of exploiting and oppressing the peoples of many nations”, and quoted a saying about New York that “The Jews own it, the Irish Catholics rule it, and the Americans pay the bills”. Year Book of Jehovah's Witnesses, 1934

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The organisation quoted the “commercial Jews” sentence itself in 1998 and said it “clearly did not refer to the Jewish people in general, and it is regrettable if it has been misunderstood and has given cause for any offense”; in 1999 it added that “nothing said in the 1933 declaration was intended to express or condone hostility toward Jews, and we regret it if some statements give that impression today”.

Show the evidence (1 source)
Primary JW publication Verified

Year Book of Jehovah's Witnesses, “Germany”

1934 · p.134 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“The greatest and the most oppressive empire on earth is the Anglo-American empire. By that is meant the British Empire, of which the United States of America forms a part. It has been the commercial Jews of the British-American empire that have built up and carried on Big Business as a means of exploiting and oppressing the peoples of many nations. This fact particularly applies to the cities of London and New York, the stronghold of Big Business. This fact is so manifest in America that there is a proverb concerning the city of New York which says: 'The Jews own it, the Irish Catholics rule it, and the Americans pay the bills.'”

The paragraph immediately follows the denial that the Society received money from Jews. It closes: “We have no fight with any of these persons mentioned, but, as the witnesses for Jehovah and in obedience to his commandment set forth in the Scriptures, we are compelled to call attention to the truth concerning the same in order that the people may be enlightened concerning God and his purpose.”

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Read on the page image of p. 134 (leaf 130) on 19 September 2026, whose own running head reads “134 Year Book”, and confirmed word for word, including the punctuation of the quoted proverb.

Scan provenance. Scan of the 1934 Year Book of Jehovah’s Witnesses held by the Internet Archive as item “1934-JwYearbook”. The item was uploaded to the Internet Archive in January 2012 by a private account; its “creator” field reads “watchtower”, but the upload is not by the publisher and the Internet Archive is not the publisher. The scanned title page names the corporate publishers as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Peoples Pulpit Association and International Bible Students Association, Brooklyn, New York, and carries the notice “Copyright 1933”. The volume is the Year Book for 1934: it carries the branch reports for the 1933 service year, and it is dated here by its edition year, the form in which the organisation’s own publications cite it (“1934 Yearbook, pp. 127-146”, The Watchtower, 1 August 1955, footnote h).

Corroborated by. src-de33-g98-nazi-peril, src-de33-g99-from-our-readers

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-de33-yb34-commercial-jews

Claim page Correct or update

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-authority-de33-commercial-jews/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.