Comments on: Happy Arrival Day!

By: jasper emmering

jasper emmering — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 15:03:03 +0000

Remember the Bretton Woods system of world finances? It was hammered out in a conference in 1944 at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Why did the delegates convene at Mount Washington? Because the other fancy pancy hotels would not have Jewish guests. And when did the US have it’s first Jewish President? Was it before or after Benjamin Disraeli and Leon Blum? By framing their argument in a legalistic way Americans can point to their Founding Fathers and claim a tolerance that probably wasn’t widespread even in those days (those FF were an enlightened upper class philosophical bunch), and certainly wasn’t so thereafter.

By: DaveC

DaveC — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 15:43:28 +0000

Newsweek devoted a quarter page to the school massacre in Russia. (One photo and three sentences, including “Fighters had seized students parents and teachers…” Not much mure clarification about who these “fighters” were. On the other hand, and on the previous page, Newsweek devoted 3/4 of a page to the JEW SPYS ARE IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION scandal, following up on last week’s article. (No mention of Sandy Berger stealing and destroying Top SSsecret- CODEWORD documents, this was unremarkable, not newsworthy) Well, at least Newsweek didn’t have a half page sidebar with Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, and Ddoug Feith on the page after yet another reprint of Abu Ghraib pictures. That was in June in a seemingly unrelated story about Chalabi. I think that Conventional Wisdom gave the Russian and Chechnyan “fighters” a < --> because you can only shoot so many children in the back before it starts to look bad.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 14:56:33 +0000

“A little more about the old days in one-third Jewish and one-half Catholic neighborhoods— It’s worth noting that in that context, ‘Protestant’ meant ‘black’.” Nah, not exclusively. There was decent number of black Catholics, and in my case “weird Protestant” meant “my best friend whose denomination is ‘just Christian’ and whose dad is heavily involved in Operation Rescue” and then later “those various churches my parents keep taking us too because they can’t make up their minds”.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 14:26:29 +0000

Thank you Eszther! I hadn’t heard about Arrival Day until I saw your post. My ancestry is also Jewish and from Hungary (the family name makes it likely that they were from Germany, but my great grandfather was born in Hungary). He came to New York in the 1890’s. As a proud Southerner, I must point out that although there has never been legal discrimination against Jews in the US, the level of social acceptance was traditionally much higher here in the South. Judah Benjamin was Secretary of Finance to the CSA 40 years before there was a Jewish cabinet member in the USA.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 13:45:13 +0000

A little more about the old days in one-third Jewish and one-half Catholic neighborhoods—It’s worth noting that in that context, ‘Protestant’ meant ‘black’.

By: njk

njk — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 09:51:54 +0000

Eszter: As a Jew born and raised in New York City, but living in Budapest (with a Hungarian wife & our children), I think it important to remember that despite the undeniable fact that anti-semitism is a very REAL problem in Hungary, the situation has improved and continues to improve. Budapest’s large Jewish community (as compared to the other communities in continental Europe) is increasingly vibrant and prosperous. While the vast majority of Budapest Jews are completely secular, it is no longer wholly surprising to see orthodox families out for a walk on a Saturday afternoon. The current Government has been very supportive of “Jewish causes” and friendly towards Israel. (Of course, elements of the opposition right wing have a strong anti-semetic bent!) Finally, for me, the most striking characteristic of Budapest’s Jewish life is how prominent Israeli business people have become. While the vast majority of Israelis may have come here originally for the financial opportunities, more and more are bringing their families and making Budapest a permanent home. Who would have thought we would witness such a “reverse aliyah”.

By: Danny

Danny — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 09:26:58 +0000

DSquared: Nope, the SBs You were either trolling or you don’t know Jews very well. First of all, what Katherine said. And besides, Jesus is not a small matter, for either Jews or Christians. Thomas Dent: Makes as much sense as “we’re all Anglo-Saxon dissenters on Mayflower day”. Isn’t that exactly what Thanksgiving is about? rather few people have the luxury of living in a place where their ethnicity is seen positively by everyone. Most people have to live with racism of some sort. They survive. Thank you for sharing with us your nonchalance about the history of antisemitism. In a sense you are right: minorities feeling vulnerable at the very least is indeed the natural state of things. Therefore if Jews in America feel differently that is indeed reason to celebrate.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 02:20:00 +0000

The course of European history is riddled with wars and civil wars in which religious rivalries and antagonisms were casual factors so it nonsense to present anti-semitism as a unique feature. In Britain, catholics and non-conformist believers were deprived of equal civil rights until well into the 19th century. As for France, try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenot The St Bartholomew’s Day massacre of Huguenots in France in 1572 make the events of 9-11 seem like a minor incident in comparison.

By: Matt McGrattan

Matt McGrattan — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 01:13:07 +0000

Re: central and Eastern European history… The Pinkasova synagogue in Prague is a very moving place to visit. The walls are covered with the names of all the Jews who were murdered during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. The sheer number of names is overwhelming. Visiting with my wife, who is from a tiny village in northern Bohemia, she was sure there would be no names from her village. It’s tiny – a few hundred people at most. However, even from a place as small as that there was a list of names to make sure they were not forgotten. Terezin is even more remarkable – the tremendous outpouring of art and literature, of theatre and music that took place even under such horrifying conditions is humbling.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 01:04:03 +0000

Mazel Tov, Eszter. I like the idea, too. My parents were Hungarian as well, but they (unlike most members of their families) were lucky enough to have come to America in the Thirties. When I first visited Hungary in 1974 I didn’t know what to expect. It was painful to visit places where Hebrew lettering remained on the walls but I was the only person able to read what was written (I was educated in secular, socialist “yiddishist” schools). I encountered much warmth but also plenty of anti-semitism. Since my parents were very nostalgic about the culture, I speak Hungarian passably well, but despite my attempts to be sensitive in my inquiries, many locals were clearly annoyed by my curiosity about things Jewish. Some of this reaction may be attributable to lingering feelings of embarrassment or guilt, but in many cases the anti-semitism was overt and shocking. Jewish and non-Jewish friends, of Polish, Ukrainian, German, Slovak and Romanian origin, have told me of similar experiences when they returned to the birthplaces of their parents. There are few places in continental Europe, perhaps middle and eastern Europe more than the west, where the land isn’t soaked in Jewish blood. Of course there is plenty—indeed, overwhelmingly more—non-Jewish blood in the soil, but there is an eeriness that overtakes a Jewish visitor to many places in Europe that is hard for non-Jews to appreciate. And it especially unsettling these days—in sophisticated, urban environments—to find that old-fashioned anti-semitism can wear a modern political disguise. Over the years I have travelled widely across Europe, and have lectured and delivered papers (in physics) at many European universities and institutes. But the eeriness remains. So, when you say “I prefer to live in a country where I do not have to be on my guard all the time about being Jewish,” Eszter, I think I understand what you are saying.

By: Delicious Pundit

Delicious Pundit — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 00:57:01 +0000

Hemi-semi-demi OT, but here’s also a shout out to New Netherland, the rapacious colonialists that made it possible.

By: Bernard Yomtov

Bernard Yomtov — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 00:39:23 +0000

Jonathan, dsquared, jr, Thanks for the facts and near-facts. I was of course talking about full legal equality rather than the sort of tolerance that existed under the Ottomans and at different times in various European countries. I think the UK may be a bit of a complex case also, since as I recall some of the restrictions on Jews were in fact restrictions on non-Anglicans. Article VI of the Constitution forbids a religious test “as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” It’s not clear to me whether “under the United States” includes state offices, but even if it doesn’t, I think my statement is supportable, North Carolina notwithstanding. As a general rule, in Europe, Jews were considered “under the protection” of the monarch. This meant they had certain legal rights, but often had to pay substantially higher taxes than other people. And of course they were prohibited from a variety of activities. In countries where the Church forbade Christians to lend money at interest (sometimes to maintain its own control of this activity) the Jews provided a convenient way for the monarch to get into the lending game. Let the Jews do the lending, and tax away the profits.

By: Tom Parmenter

Tom Parmenter — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 00:29:40 +0000

Blogger doesn’t support trackback, but here’s my contribution to the discussion, dates of Jewish political emancipation for various countries: America’s Freedom, Jewish Freedom

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 00:02:22 +0000

I grew up on Long Island, so I used to think that the country was about half Catholic and one third Jewish… This is NOT an urban legend—I know the person about whom this story is told, though I’ve never heard her tell it—but even if it were, I’d feel it my duty to spread it: A friend of my family was teaching in Great Neck in 1960. She said, “If Senator Kennedy is elected, he will become the first Catholic President.” A kid in the back row said, “All the rest were Jewish?” (Dittoes to Katherine on the alleged rightward drift of American Jews, as well.)

By: Katherine

Katherine — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 23:08:50 +0000

p.s. I also go to the same synagogue as John Kerry’s little brother Cameron. Where Cameron Kerry may have heard his brother criticized more than one by the rabbis on the issue of gay marriage, but perhaps not in the way that you’re thinking:

Do not be misled by the genteel language in which this clarion call to the forces of the Religious Right is cloaked. George Bush and his team know where their electoral bread is buttered. With saccharine pseudo-sensitivity his speech-writers have had him issue a coded, highly-nuanced broadside against a proud history of American judicial protection of Civil Rights, against the aspirations of gay and lesbian citizens to equal protection and entitlements under civil law, and against the voice of conscience. Let me be quick to point out that the responses of the Democratic candidates were only marginally better. Only those candidates who have no hope of being nominated by their party, Carol Mosely Braun, Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton were willing to speak the word and endorse civil marriage for gay and lesbian citizens. All of the others chose the politically expedient path of some non-controversial middle-ground rather than the risky, but righteous route of unqualified support for the right to marry for all citizens. In that moment, they might have protested with Moses, va’ni aral s’atayim, but I am a person of impeded speech?

And of course I also owe my political sanity to the American Jewish diaspora, in the form of young Jonathan Stuart Liebowitz. And Dsquared—you take that back. The overwhelming majority of American Jews remember how recently they got into the religious “in-crowd” and want absolutely nothing to do with the Southern Baptists. Bush (not a Baptist, but a strong ally of them) is polling no better among Jewish voters than he did in 2000, as far as I know—around 20% Heck, the Jews I know best can barely stand Joe Lieberman, on account of excess hawkishness and public piety.