The history is there to support a large Jewish element within Masonry. Somebody who says they are similar in terms of some outward religious structure is missing the point: Freemasonry is syncretic. It abstracts away from all religion and is supposed to embody initiatic knowledge into an absolute esoteria that is immanent in all religions. The similarity of the Masonic ruler and compass with the Star of David or Seal of Solomon is not very telling of anything besides a shared Platonic cosmology: "as above so below". This doesn't truly segregate them from any of the new age nonsense out there today. The early groups that eventually became the Freemasons (unless you go for the epic Grail history and what not) were Christian esotericists, probably influenced a great deal by Kabbalism. But that dialectic between Catholics and Jews had been going on for a few centuries since the Renaissance. One thing that needs to be remembered is that Judaism has changed remarkably over the millennia. The Rabbinic Judaism that emerged after Christ and the destruction of the Jewish temple was not the same as Pharisaic Judaism, and certainly not by the time we get to the middle ages. There is a major element of worldwide reformation and perfection in Rabbinic Judaism. The concept of tikkun olam arises in the Mishnaic period, so probably 3rd century A.D., which has basically to do with morally perfecting the world, or creating a proper abode for God. It's very easy to see how Christian esoteric and initiatic groups in the pre-modern period that had branched off in the schism of the Catholic Church could have easily been taken away by these Kabbalistic ideas. The Masonic ethical goals have been compared with tikkun olam. It's highly likely that these groups just represented very likely places for Jews to assimilate. Since they were also elitist, then its not surprising they involved wealthy and politically important people. Combined with the fact of the intrigue of secrets and esoteria, there is also an elitist intellectualism associated with these groups, which tends to see the old religious orders as profane. If you find Jews wherever you find revolution, then saying Freemasonry is tied up with Judaism is like saying hearts are tied up with blood. If you find blood somewhere, you can be sure a heart was pumping it. Likewise, if you find revolution of social and religious orders, you can bet Jews were probably the revolutionary heart pumping the blood (usually as money). Is it probably the case that there were more extrinsic connections and more nefarious things going on? Probably. But that's not even necessary to know to make the Jewish connection. Communism was also an ideological world-reformatory movement. It was fully Jewish. One other way to think about things is by realizing that changing large complex political and economic structures means changing their power structures. So if the Jew is fundamentally revolutionary, infiltrating any elite group will be on their radar. Given their controlling stakes in banking and finance in Europe for most of modernity, it just follows that they have an inroads into those groups. Who is to keep them out? We have heard stories that early Masons *did try* to prevent Jewish membership. It seems like we are always trying this and rarely succeed at it. It's like trying to keep the devil out of any place. The harder it becomes for the devil to get in, the more it sweetens the devil's deal for the weakest among them.