What gets me is that all these liberal Jews spent years trying to convince the Vatican to recognize Israel. When Pope John Paul finally did establish relations with Israel, they were dancing in the streets.
Why would it be so important to these people for the Vatican, who has been so pro-Palestinian for so many years, and were very much responsible for the spread of antisemitsim in Europe, to recognize Israel? Yet they view Evangelical Christians in America, the one country that has been good to the Jews, who are enthusiastically pro-Israel, with nothing but suspicion and contempt.
I'LL TELL YOU WHY, DAMMIT....
Most American Jews live in big cities, at least they did a few decades ago. They had friends and neighbors who were Catholics....Italians, Irish, Hispanics. They figure that if the Vatican recognizes Israel, all those nice Catholics will like them even better.
Most American Jews also had ancestors who came from rural areas of Poland, Russia, the Ukraine, etc. Their ancestors were persecuted by blond haired, light eyed, rural, nationalistic Christians. So they see Evangelical Christians, who also live in rural areas and are also nationalistic, and who also tend to have blond hair and light eyes, as the American equivalent to the people who persecuted them in Eastern Europe.
These liberal Jews are engaged in a combination of knee jerk racial prejudice and big city elitism. There is an old Yiddish expresssion...."goyishakop". It means the face of a goy (the face of a non Jew). You'll never hear a Jew describe a Black, Hispanic or Asian as a goyishakop. It's always someone with blond hair, light eyes and a turned up nose.
A mob of Blacks can start an anti-Jewish pogrom in Brooklyn and these liberal Jews just yawn. Left wing college students can call for the destruction of Israel and the liberal Jews yawn. But when a blond haired, light eyed, goyishakop with a Southern accent from a small rural town talks about Jesus, these idiots go nuts.
They are an embarrassment. At least the Orthodox, Hasidic and Sephardic Jews vote Republican.
Why would it be so important to these people for the Vatican, who has been so pro-Palestinian for so many years, and were very much responsible for the spread of antisemitsim in Europe, to recognize Israel? Yet they view Evangelical Christians in America, the one country that has been good to the Jews, who are enthusiastically pro-Israel, with nothing but suspicion and contempt.
I'LL TELL YOU WHY, DAMMIT....
Most American Jews live in big cities, at least they did a few decades ago. They had friends and neighbors who were Catholics....Italians, Irish, Hispanics. They figure that if the Vatican recognizes Israel, all those nice Catholics will like them even better.
Most American Jews also had ancestors who came from rural areas of Poland, Russia, the Ukraine, etc. Their ancestors were persecuted by blond haired, light eyed, rural, nationalistic Christians. So they see Evangelical Christians, who also live in rural areas and are also nationalistic, and who also tend to have blond hair and light eyes, as the American equivalent to the people who persecuted them in Eastern Europe.
These liberal Jews are engaged in a combination of knee jerk racial prejudice and big city elitism. There is an old Yiddish expresssion...."goyishakop". It means the face of a goy (the face of a non Jew). You'll never hear a Jew describe a Black, Hispanic or Asian as a goyishakop. It's always someone with blond hair, light eyes and a turned up nose.
A mob of Blacks can start an anti-Jewish pogrom in Brooklyn and these liberal Jews just yawn. Left wing college students can call for the destruction of Israel and the liberal Jews yawn. But when a blond haired, light eyed, goyishakop with a Southern accent from a small rural town talks about Jesus, these idiots go nuts.
Bravo for touching on this idiotic "bumpkin-phobia" so many American Jews suffer from, and it's for the exact reasons you say! Never mind that the people who killed their ancestors in Europe were Catholic or Orthodox chr*stians, the fact that they live with these people in big American cities makes them "kosher," while rural Protestants (and when was there ever a pogrom in a Protestant country, other than Germany under a totalitarian pagan regime) have been cast into a role they have never actually performed. And of course, rural Southern Protestants who are Black are magically transformed into non-Goyim even though all non-Jews are goyim. American Jews can deal with people named Mary Elizabeth or Francis Xavier or Vladimir or Jose Rodriguez but put them face to face with someone named Caleb or Jethro or Jedidiah and they go into spasms of anxiety.
Ironically, the rural bumpkins of which Jews are so needlessly terrified read the Bible and get the idea that the ancient Israelites were themselves rural agricultural bumpkins who were very like themselves. I am sure there were very few Biblical Israelites who were in investment banking, the modern secular legal profession, or the "entertainment business!"
They are an embarrassment. At least the Orthodox, Hasidic and Sephardic Jews vote Republican.
Another irony is that I think contemporary Southern Fundamentalists are more like 'Ashkenazim than Sefaradim. Sefaradim are simply too laid back (like the French Cajuns). In fact, using the opposing forces of the English Civil war as a model I would classify them as Jewry's "cavaliers." I think Orthodox 'Ashkenazim are Jewry's "roundheads" (those 'Ashkenazim who are Orthodox are much stricter and more "uptight" than the Sefaradim), and despite the professional Confederate Puritan-haters I believe our Southern Protestants are very much roundheads.
Thank you for your post!