Yeah, I also took that part of the book (the clearly Jewish stock brokers) rather personally.

And it made me so mad, because Anthea is one of my favorite characters in all children's literature. Was this also the book where she needs a reason to have been crying, and so she gets one of her brothers to whack her on the hand with an iron poker? The sheer bravery of that act (and the fact that it was motivated by love) haunted me in a thrilling and inspirational way for years.