How is being half jewish different than being jewish? How is it different than not being jewish? God I didn't want to write this but it seems to write itself as I can't believe people's ignorance sometimes. If I don't want to write about it, somebody will. As a mischling, you are an outsider who is also in the circle. Some mischlings become even more jewish than their full blooded brothers through much trial and error and blood and tears. I find the whole thing daunting.
Anyways, I have a bit of ADD so I may skip around here. Me and my brother have been working a temp job at a lumber mill. A lot of the workers there have complaints about the new owner of the business, that he doesn't pay enough. That he doesn't keep temp employees past a few months because than he'd have to hire them permanently. Anyways, my brother heard one of the employees say "What a JEW." Is the guy a jew? No. But to many people, he is what jews represent. And I for one, am sick of the stereotype.
Before you gripe, I'm not one of those people who complains "antisemitism" at every turn. I have been friends with every type of person under the sun, including some who claimed to not be very fond of my mother's people. Am I a masochist? No, but in my youth I had things to prove. Now I don't. If somebody wants to be a bigot I let them be. As far as I can tell, if I tell a guy like our fellow employee that I'm jewish, he will probably find something about me he doesn't like and match it up with his stereotype. Like maybe he thinks I'm a liberal long haired hippy even though I don't consider myself liberal OR conservative.
My father, who is not jewish, took me and my brother to visit an old man he had known once. He was a guy in southern california who used to employ my dad to mow his lawn and do various other chores. When the guy was going off on jews and how he hates his them worse than anyone, my dad reminded him that "my wife is jewish." The guy turned pale and looked like he was going to croak on the spot. He apologized profusely. My dad wasn't angry. He too had heard this stuff quite a bit I'm sure. Plus it was an old guy. What are you going to do?
But the memory stayed with me for a long time. Why did the guy hate jews? I loved my jewish family. They were fun. I enjoyed passover and it always seemed like a fun and mystical holiday. Why did the stereotype about greedy jews bother me so much? I think it was because I felt like it was such a flagrant misunderstanding.
When I see people on twitter who believe the jews run everything, or the holocaust didn't happen, I'm not sure what their endgame is. I will speak about the holocaust. A lot of people these days call it the holohoax because they don't believe it actually happened. I guess they believe if jewish people started this myth it would put them in a position of power where they could take over israel and run shit and nobody could say anything because of their past oppression. I guess if I wasn't jewish and I never met a jew in my life and everytime I turn around I see Wolfowitz and whoever seeminglyis in political positions of power, a lot of jews obviously in showbiz, I might wonder what the trip is. But I'm here to say, I lived among jews and I've lived among nonjews. In my experience, I generally love us. I spent time in Ireland too. I have Irish blood. If I had to choose between Israel or Ireland, I'd choose both. I'd be bi-continental. But I don have to say jews stick together partially because of antisemitism. With all of that out there, it's comforting to be around people who are of a similar background.
Anyways, back to the holocaust. On my mom's side, My grandmother was put into concentration camps as a teen. She had been starving in the ghetto where she watched her father die. Her boyfriend and mother and siblings (all but one) were all killed, most in the gaschambers that some say today did not exist, and one in the warsaw uprising. She had one brother who survived and moved to Israel. When I was cleaning out her apartment I found notes from a psychiatrist who talked about how my Grandmother suffered from post traumatic stress from watching SS officers throw babies into the air and shoot them. Did she talk about this anyone else? NO. The general stereotype of we jews going around throwing holocaust hissyfits at everyone we meet goes against the odds of what my grandparents were like. They tried to keep it under wraps as much as possible. My grandmother only granted an interview about what happened to her when she heard about people saying it never happened.
My grandfather was quite a bit older and had a family of his own, a wife and two daughters, who were taken from him and massacred. My aunts I would never know. I often think that if the holocaust hadn't happened, I wouldn't be here right now. My grandparents would have carried out their lives with their significant others of that time and would never have married each other. On a sidenote, if my father wasn't a vietnam veteran who, having survived being a marine and going to school, wouldn't have met my mother without that experience. This doesn't mean my birth is so important that I'm glad the holocaust and the vietnam war happened. It's just something I ponder sometimes. It's so strange to me that people argue about something they supposedly think didn't happen whereas I wouldn't be here if it hadn't happened. But the problem is, what can I say to these people that hasn't already been said? They are frustrated by what seems to be a staggering number of jews killed. Ya know what? That's what a genocide is. And I'm not one to say it hasn't happened to others. Look how many other people were killed in world war 2! I don't suggest that isn't a tragedy. The reason why the holocaust is a big deal to the jews is because of the huge percentage of the population it wiped out. And something I think about is my grandma used to say it was the best ones who died. Maybe she meant the children, maybe the elderly. Or maybe the ones who were selfless and didn't cling to survival. The ones who gave up their bread for others.
I just wish I could take some of these people who hate jews and have them meet my grandmother and eat her delicious food. I wish they could take part in the fun holidays, sing the songs, dance the dances of my mother's people. But that's only a part of me. The other part of me knows that hate runs very deep and isn't given up very easily.
A lot of people these days, including a group of men who claim that they are the real jews and the ashkenazi jews are evil imposters, cling to a belief that the ashkenazi were not original biblical jews and instead converted to judaism in the 15th century. I don't know what's true or false, I wasn't there. But judaism afterall, is a culture and a religion. If your great great grandparents converted to catholicism and you're a practicing catholic does that make you a fake catholic because of their conversion? BUT the argument stems from the fact that people don't think ashkenazi jews belong in israel. There is a guy on the internet who makes videos and interviews people who did an "expose" on how ashkenazis are fake jews, and how we are horrible clowns that run around in big hats. Yet than he goes on to interview a drummer who "PLAYED WITH THE BEASTIE BOYS!" Hey Brodius Maximus,quit hating on jews and than idolizing their art at the same time. This happens all the time with basic bitch jew haters. I knew this one asshole who would go off of on me for being jewish and than he would proclaim his love for Kubrick. "Best director ever." "He was jewish," I'd say. "All you jews want to claim everyone for you own!" I merely mentioned it because I was so tired of the hypocrisy. If you're going to hate on us than stop celebrating our art. It reminds me of how Joe Strummer used to say people who don't smoke shouldn't be allowed to listen to art created by people who smoke. It's kind of A silly thing to say, but it speaks about his authenticity.
when you're a mischling, it's like the jewish version of being mulatto. You don't quite fit in either side. But you're extra close with your fellow underdogs too. I am not saying this as woe is me. I don't know if I would enjoy the comfort and homogeneity of a people who are perfectly accepted. It's not what I know.
I just know that all my life I have heard people say rotten things about jews. Am I oppressed? NO. Guarded? Yes. I even recently had a roommate who confided to me that his grandparent had been a nazi. He didn't know I was jewish, and I kept my mouth shut about it. I don't know why. A lot of people would think it was a subservient position. For me it was one of survival. I don't have a lot of money, I'm living in a convenient affordable circumstance, and I wanted to avoid awkwardness. We became pretty good friends. The worst he'd say about jews were a lot of them lived in beverly hills and a lot of them had money. That's probably why he never guessed I was! I was broker than him.
Now recently, I responded on twitter about the young lady who was mean to the lyft driver with the hawaiian bobblehead. I made some quips directed at the absurdity of the situation. Pretty soon, Alt right people started retweeting me. I went through one of the guy's tweets and he was a pretty stereotypical jew hating holocaust denier. I wasn't thrilled about that.
But what are we going to do? Whine about it like the ADL? Personally, I think the jews on the Alt right are dealing with things in a better way. They are reaching out all across the board. They are having conversations online with people who have never met jews before. They are listening to their point of view.They are arguing with them. They are communicating and expressing their freedom of speech. It could be said that it's healthier to bash it out over the internet than to do as we have in midevil times. On the other end of the coin, people who completely sell out to the other side remind me of the jews who considered themselves patriotic germans before jews, but still got sold down the river. And what about jews who don't give a crap about being jewish? Internet bigots wax philosophically about the "Evil Talmud," but how many jews even read the Talmud? And furthermore, there is weird stuff in every kind of midevil literature, religious and otherwise.
The idea that jews are pushing for mass immigration is complicated. A lot of jews, believe that if they take the position of sovereignty, it would be hypocritical because they needed the help in the 1940s. They can't believe in good conscience that they could ignore Syrians, for instance. But there's a hell of a lot of jews who are as diehard as any confederate flag waving good old boy when it comes to the subject. To lump a whole group of people is ignorant. But a lot of people who preach this stuff aren't necessarily stupid in the classical sense of the word. What I actually believe about jewish power, and I've thought about this a lot, is that a lot of jews are put in positions of power, some from merit, and some from masters above them to be sort of frontmen and make it SEEM like jews have a lot of power. Some jews have money but look at where the real dough is! You think Stephen Spielberg is even in the same category as these billionaire sheiks from Saudi Arabia?
The judaism I sometimes feel at odds with is certain sections of orthadox judaism. In some ways, there's a comfort to that world. I lived in Pico robertson in LA for a number of years and enjoyed it. But the kosher thing, come on. Really? My whole thing is I think you're better of eating as little meat as possible. I feel like most orthadox stuff is obviously not divine. All the rules, the separation. I find it embarrassing actually. But than if you meet these people, many of them are likeable! Not all but many. I just couldn't live like that, worrying about whether I flicked a light switch or not on the sabbath. And separating your dishes, etc. I'm already OCD enough. I also HATE the concept of circumcision. I think it's a crime to chop off our foreskin. Lets us have the whole thing please! Life is already fucking hard enough. So basically I think Judaism would be pretty rad if they stopped chopping off foreskins and taking kosher laws so damn seriously. And don't get offended about christmas. Anyways I think there's a new breed of new jews coming along. We don't get shocked so easily. We mix easily with the crowd. We work blue collar jobs.
