communism

A nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn he was not.  Bobby Fischer, though Jewish and from Brooklyn, was not nice at all.

In fact, the American chess prodigy--who made international headlines when he defeated the Russian reigning chess king Boris Spassky, in 1972--was a rabid anti-semite, anti-American, and basically all around bigot. Many talented celebrities are known for having vile prejudices but few, perhaps none, have become more famous for them.

No one likes to talk about Jews and money.  Too much history has gotten between the two, to say nothing of the present: see the Beck/Soros fracas, for instance, or Al Pacino in Broadway's "Merchant of Venice."  But now seems as good a time as any to tackle the connection.  Thankfully a few provocative books are trying to do just that.