Jews

[Alan Sondheim]

Jews


I am losing friends over this. I reach states of no return over this.
I respond poorly and unfairly. I'm tired of thinking of myself, 'Jew,'
and listening and watching 'Jew' return in guises I don't recognize.
Needless to say:

Jews did not leave the World Trade Center just before it was hit.
Jews came to work that day like everyone else.
It was not a Zionist conspiracy.
Jews did not cause the Tsunami.
Jews went through the Holocaust which killed a lot of them.
Jew, Jew, Jews.
Jews do not want to slaughter Palestinians.
Jews do not have two navels.
Jews do not have horns.
Jews do not control the media.
Jews do not control the daily content of the media.
Jews have never eaten Christian children or killed Christian children.
Jews do not run the United States.
There is no world Zionist conspiracy.
Jew, Jews, Jews.
Most Jews are not Zionists.
Most Jews are secular.
Not all Jews support Israel's internal or external policies.
Most Jews are not religious.
Jews do not have more money than other people.
Jews are not stupider or smarter than other people.
Jews do not control the World Bank or world money supply.
Jews are not sexier or unsexier than other people.
Jews do not harbor gold.
Jews most likely have as much and no more sex than other people.
Jews are not 'clannish' any more than Chinese, Arabs, Germans, Italians,
or Wasps are clannish.
Not all Jews believe in God or a God, and at least one rabbi I know is
atheist.
Jew, Jews, Jews.
Jews did not steal Judaism from Blacks.
The Jews did not run the slave trade.
Jews are no better or worse than any other people.
There was and is no Eternal Jew or Wandering Jew.
Many Jews protest the policies of Israel.
Jews whine no more or less than other people.
If a Jew thinks Israel has the right to exist, that doesn't make him or
her a Zionist.
Not all Israelis are Jews and not all Jews are Israelis.
If a Jew thinks Palestine has a right to exist, that doesn't make him or
her anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli.
Jew, Jews, Jews.
Jews do not have big noses.
Jews are not gutter people and don't belong to a gutter religion.
Most Jewish women are not Jewish American Princesses.
Most Jewish men do not wear yalmukahs or go to synagogue.
Jews are not bad people.
The Protocols of Zion are a forgery.
Jews don't conspire any more or less than other people.
There is no world-wide Jewish conspiracy.
There are no local Jewish conspiracies.
Jews are not anti-Christian or anti-Islam.
Most Jews read the Torah as a historical document, and very few believe it
literally.
Very few Jews statistically are religious.
Jewish men do not menstruate.
No, Jews don't whine over anti-semitism.
Most Jews in the United States intermarry (at least this was true a few
ears ago).
Jews do not smell differently than other people.
Jews do not stink.
Jews are not dirty.
Jew, Jews, Jews.
Jew, Jews, Jews.

Most of this is self-evident. And to be honest, it cripples me to write
this. I hear some of these things over and over again. They're on the Net.
They're in the streets. They're in the newspapers. I tended to ignore
them. I'm writing this to clear my head. There are people who liked me who
no longer like me. When I defend Jews, I'm called a Zionist or obsessed
with anti-semitism. I'm neither. I want in fact the discourse to go away.
I'm more concerned about anti-semitism against Arabs, even in the
neighborhood I live in, in Brooklyn. But I can't let this go. It scares
me. It preternaturally scares me. A son of a Holocaust survivor I know is
frightened it will happen again. I don't feel that way. I watch what this
sort of rhetoric does to me. I don't like it. I don't recognize myself in
it. I don't think it should occur this late in the game, this 21st century
of human barbarism. Be it known the Jews are no more or less barbaric,
strangers, than other people. Be it known, I can't escape my heritage, the
culture I was raised in. I don't want to pass or have to pass.

- Aba


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