The first thing you need to know, according to the author Sophia Marie Unterman, is how easy it is to cheat the goyim. Inspiring! Tikkun olam!
1. Capitalize on the convenient lack of knowledge about Jewish holidays.
When I was in eighth grade and unprepared for an upcoming French test, I told my teacher that I was very sorry but I couldn’t take an exam that day, as it was Yom Shalom. I was being strategic, of course; it was October, and thus in the vague timeframe of the High Holidays, and I was in Prairie Village, Kansas, where most folks were hazy on the details of Judaism in general. My teacher apologized profusely and said she would bump the test to the following Monday.
I pulled a similar stunt when working as a file clerk in Louisiana, when I took off some extra time around Yom Kippur, as my boss didn’t know how many days it lasted. This tactic of bending the length of or making up brand-new holidays works well for both children and adults, although the creativity and liberty you are able to take depends on your exact location…Historically, many Jews have chosen to assimilate, to blend into American non-Jewish spaces. This tactic was oftentimes necessary for acceptance, and even for survival. I was lucky to be able to take the opposite route — to express my Jewishness to its full extent (to a rather obnoxious degree at times, I must admit).
I wonder if there could be any downside to goyim learning that Jews will cheat them if they think they can get away with it? Might there be a backlash?
Now it is entirely possible that the author is making it up that she routinely lied to the goyim about Jewish holidays to take advantage of their naivete. She may have just been taking literary license.
