I was talking a woman the other day who was a secular leftist Jew. She had 12 years of Orthodox Jewish day school.
I asked her: "If you were herded into gas chambers next week along with all the other Jews you knew and you had a minute to think before you were killed, how would you understand what was happening? Why were you and your fellow Jews being murdered?"
She answered: "Because Jews are dirty and hairy. You just have to spend a day on the New York subway. They have too much body hair. They don’t smell good. Every Jew, even a Jew who practices a Judaism, has a day where he sees Jews as non-Jews see them. They see them as lice, as cockroaches."
Chaim Amalek emails: "I ride the subway every day and just don’t notice this. In fact, I see it as a place for People of Color, breeding themselves into a position of mastery over the white race. Jews really are not as big a part of the picture as they were in decades past. The hasids are different, and while there is a lot to say about them they are not that numerous in Manhattan."
Luke: "But you’re not dirty and hairy."
Woman: "A lot of people are surprised when they find out I’m Jewish. I don’t talk about it. I downplay my Jewishness. I’ve encountered anti-Semitism all my life. I remember when I was working a temp job in sales and this woman said to me, ‘Your people are good at sales.’"
Luke: "How would you feel about holding my hand in public?"
Woman: "With you wearing a yarmulke? And that beard? I’d be ashamed. Appalled."
Luke: "I’ve never had a woman ashamed of me before. I’ve dated non-Jewish women. None of them were ashamed of me. They were all respectful of my Judaism. None of them were ashamed about holding my hand in public while I wore a yarmulke.
"Almost every non-Jew I know is respectful of my Judaism. None of them loathe it. You loathe it."
Woman: "So why do you think that people hate Jews?"
Luke: "Because they represent God on earth."
Woman: "I have so many contemptuous things I want to say right now, but I won’t."
Chaim emails: "Competition. The Jews have higher average IQs and stronger group solidarity which, combined with their constant hectoring the rest of the world to open its borders to strangers, naturally makes them come to hate Jews. Happened in Poland, it is happening in Postville, it happens wherever similar ethnic groups (e.g. the Chinese in Indonesia) present similar facts. (See Kevin MacDonalds’ books)."
Beth posts: "You hear about self-loathing Jews but it’s rare to get them to admit it. I can tell you from personal experience that I get embarrased when Jewish friends and family are "cheap" in a way that I don’t in that same situation with gentile friends and family. As if when John Jones uses a coupon he’s being financially responsible, but Chaim Goldberg uses the same coupon because he’s cheap. It’s something I am aware of and actively trying to change about myself."
Mo emails: "Have you ever been to Naples? Southern Italians, in particular, are also "dirty and hairy," but nobody has tried to force them into gas chambers."
