Why can’t we not ask about any events that get into the news releases: “Is it good for Jews?” And since the hidden stream of hostility towards Jews seems to never run out, it is almost impossible to imagine any event with the participation of prominent Jews, in relation to which we would not have mixed expectations. Absolutely anything can cause a surge of hatred in a born fanatic, and deep down many anti-Semites are like that.
The somewhat perverse emotional impact of such a hostile environment on Jews was amusingly illustrated by Jennifer Senior in New York magazine. The journalist wrote her article about a report about a gene allegedly discovered by scientists, thanks to which Jews are intellectually superior to other people.
Jennifer Senior writes that for many years she kept in her head a list of outstanding Jews, of whom she, as a representative of the same people, was sincerely proud. “Freud and Marx, Einstein and Bohr, Mendelssohn and Mahler. The Gershwin brothers. The Marx brothers. Woody Allen. Bob Dylan. Franz Kafka. Claude Levi-Strauss. Bobby Fischer.” She liked to add names to this list from Jewhoo, a website (no longer existing) dedicated to prominent Jews. (The name of the site is formed from two words – Jew [Jew] and the second part of the name of the famous search engine Yahoo!) It is not difficult to imagine the confusion of a journalist when one day, roaming the Internet, she found almost the same list, but entitled “Show business under Jewish control” and posted on the infamous anti-Semitic site jewwatch. com.
Boundless irony: the very facts that make Jews proud of their nationality become an additional reason for anti-Semites to fear and despise them! That’s why Woody Allen portrays his typical character – an ordinary Jewish loser – as a bundle of nerves and a collection of neuroses. You would also become like this if literally every aspect of your life and personality was viewed by others as a reason to hate you.
Personally, it always amazes me how many Jews admit to their uncertainty about whether they need to talk about their achievements, and if so, how openly. As if there is something vulgar or shameful in honest achievements. A friend of mine who introduced me to the site Jewhoo once told me about a friend of his, also a Jew. This man has his own list of those Jews who would rather not be. And at that moment I realized that I myself have such a mental list. (Currently in the first place in it is Andy Fastow, a fraudster from Enron.)
Today, Bernie Madoff probably ousted Andy Fastow from the “honorable” top step of the list of journalist Jennifer Senior.
