Bestselling Author Freida McFadden Reveals Her True Identity
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From Groucho Marx to Alex Edelman, sometimes the best weapon against Jew hatred is a great punchline.
The great British philanthropist and Orthodox Jew Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885) was once seated at a dinner party next to an antisemite who declared he’d just come back from a trip to Japan, where they “have neither pigs nor Jews.”
Without pause, Sir Moses replied “Accordingly, you and I should go there so they can have a sample of each.”
British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), the 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, was immensely proud of his Jewish family’s Levite status. (In ancient times, Levites worked in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.) One day in Parliament, an MP named Daniel O’Connell attacked Disraeli in intensely antisemitic terms. Disraeli’s response was equally blistering:
“Yes, I am a Jew, and while the ancestors of the Right Honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the Temple of Solomon.”
British Jewish writer Israel Zangwill (1861-1926) was once at a snooty London event where an aristocrat sneered “My ancestors came over with William the Conqueror.” Zangwill is said to have smiled and replied: “How interesting… mine came over with Moses.”
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) observed rising antisemitism in his native Germany with alarm. Antisemites demonstrated at his public lectures. In 1933 he left Germany and publicly renounced his German citizenship.
When the great scientist received a prize in France in 1929, he acknowledged pervasive antisemitism in Europe, quipping: “If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German, and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.”
When told he and his family couldn’t swim in the pool at a country club that excluded Jews, comedian Groucho Marx (1890-1977), whose wife was not Jewish, protested: “But my daughter’s only half-Jewish. Can she go in up to her waist?”
Marx was one of the few Jewish members of the exclusive Friars Club, an exclusive Manhattan private club which famously restricted Jewish members.
In 1949, he lampooned the club’s antisemitism, resigning his membership in a telegram: “I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.”
The famous Jewish baseball star Hank Greenberg (1911-1986) faced a torrent of antisemitic abuse each time he stepped onto the field in the 1930s. Originally an unaffiliated Jew, Greenberg began to see himself as a representative of the Jewish people helping build Jewish pride. “Every home run I hit,” he later recalled, “was a home run against Hitler.”
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir (1898 - 1978) engaged in US-mediated peace talks with Arab states in the 1970s. On one occasion, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger explained that he was being tough on Israel because he didn’t want to be accused of favoritism to the Jewish state. “First I am an American,” he said, “second I am Secretary of State, and third I am a Jew.”
Prime Minister Meir simply replied: “In Israel, we read from right to left.”
After antisemites marched through the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, chanting “Jews will not replace us,” comedian Elon Gold provided a response:
“We don’t want to replace you, we just want to put braces on you…we just want to manage your portfolio…we want to place you in a 30-year fixed low interest mortgage…we want to fit you for glasses, heal you, teach you, inspire you, make you laugh, represent you in a divorce and she replaces you.”
When an audience member started heckling comedian Mike Glazer recently, calling him a “Jew pig” and telling him that Americans don’t like Jews, Glazer paused his routine and offered a reply that quickly went viral:
“I feel like I’m in my Instagram right now. This is so crazy. Wow. You never see them IRL (in real life). And then once you do, you’re like, oh, yeah, that’s about what I thought!”
When comedian Alex Edelman found himself on the receiving end of antisemitic comments on Twitter, he compiled a list of their user names, labeling it “Jewish National Fund contributors.” Referencing the list of Jews in Schindler’s List he said: “Let them be on a list for once!”
I went to the same high school (James Monroe, in the Bronx) as Hank Greenberg, but in a different decade. I learned from my Jewish friends that one way to get ahead in this society is study hard and work hard. Jews can be good and bad, but so can everyone else! Move to North Korea if you can stand Jews in America. The North Korean government will treat you "with kindness and love".......ha, ha.
My most common response to Jew-haters I encounter on social media is "Kiss my kosher keister." But for a a select few, I inform them, "Your head is so far up your tuchus, it's coming out of your mouth."
I see must Jews answered the anti semites with clever humor, and points to make anti semites think hard, anti semites don't seem that they are smart to me in my newspaper comic section there was a picture of aliens and a picture of what earthlings do and the caption said " that earthlings are obsessed with Jews" these anti semites should get a life instead of being obsessed with Jews, maybe this obsession stems from jealousy of the Jews, like my mom( obm) said " if you are jealous of someone you hate them" so technically anti semites are jealous of Jews, that is why they make dumb remarks to Jews
They are envious of Jewish success. Envy is a toxic emotion.
When I found out I was part Jewish, I was filled with immense pride! So many of my friends were Jews. My parents always made disparaging remarks against the Jews, and here was the secret! I am forever a Zionist! Immovable for Israel. Some day, I hope to go!
I really love some of the earlier responses, especially Sir Moses Montefiore's and Israel Zangwill's.
I love Elon Gold.
I’m wondering if D’Israeli accepted his Judaism later in life. He was a Christian convert who swore in on the NT when he became Prime Minister.
From what I read about him, it isn't that he converted because he believed in Christianity, but rather that he was very ambitious. As a Jew, his career would not have gotten very far. Definitely, not Prime Minister.
His father converted when D'Israrli was 12 years of age and I think he went along but internally other than pride in his heritage remains a mystery. Many Jews at that time in Western Europe after the enlightenment had limited Jewish education and the opportunities of the wider world were far greater if they at least nominally embraced Christianity. In the USA Today thrir is a similar pull to assimilation snd greater intermarriage without needing to convert.
Pierre Mendes France (président du Conseil) at the French National Assembly once was interrupted by an anti-semite deputy by : “ shut up, you, the circumcised” he smiled and replied:”it seems that your wife talks too much !”
I love this response. So French. <g>
I am not a Jew - but I love the Jews!!!!!!
In response to antisemitic chant "Jews will not replace us."
Response:
"We don’t want to replace you, we just want to put braces on you…we just want to manage your portfolio…we want to place you in a 30-year fixed low interest mortgage…we want to fit you for glasses, heal you, teach you, inspire you, make you laugh, represent you in a divorce and she replaces you.”~Elon Gold
Brilliant, and true.
@>~>~~
Henry Kissinger:
“First I am an American,” he said, “second I am Secretary of State, and third I am a Jew.”
Prime Minister Meir simply replied:
“In Israel, we read from right to left.”
Such a searingly present, and intelligent response.
@>~>~~
See:
God gave us a gift to help responded to this.
We can do this round.
The thing is, Kissinger never considered himself Jewish. He was brought up Episcopalian, whether his family converted or not, Im not sure. He was hostile towards Jews in general. I love Golda's reply. She probably knew him well!
Rivka, I think you are mistaken. Kissinger was brought up in Germany. I had a teacher in BYA yeshiva high school, Rabbi Ebstein, who said he went to yeshiva with Henry Kissinger's brother.
According to Google:
Henry Kissinger was born into a German-Jewish family in 1923 and fled Nazi persecution to the U.S. in 1938. While his father was a devout Orthodox teacher, Kissinger reportedly lost his religious faith during World War II. He maintained a cultural, emotional connection to Judaism, particularly regarding the Holocaust and Israel's survival.
It sounds like getting a new tooth to replace the tooth that got extracted, these remarks are real zingers especially the one Golda Meir told Kissinger