A friend sent me a link to this essay by Todd Pitinsky. Pitinisky’s premise is that those who hate Jews love the experience, thrill over it and love it even more when we try to fight, neutralize or even educate. I read The Joy of Hating Jews/Why antisemites always have a blast — and how Jews enhance the experience and nodded my head through much of it. What a waste of life. To spend it stoking hatred. It all feels so helpless. So inevitable. Here we go again. As I’ve written before it’s not my job to stop an anti-semite from hating me. It is my job to live as a Jew: attend synagogue, support Jewish institutions, vote for my understanding of the better candidate (slim pickings these days) and then hope for the best.
So what’s a Jew to do? This Jew took a stab at some humor. Dark humor to be sure. Minorities living at the whim of greater populations have used humor for eons to withstand the onslaught. I tried my hand at it. For a moment or two or three it felt alright.
Q. How many pogroms does it take to destroy the Jewish people?
A. Don’t even bother. They’ve tried for millennia.
Q. What do you call a Jew-free country?
A. A failure.
A Jew-hater walks into a bar and the bartender says,
“I’m sorry. We don’t serve Jew-haters here. No, wait.
I’m not sorry at all!”
Q. What’s the difference between a Jew and a cockroach?
A. Cockroaches hide. Jews have pride. Tons of it.
More than any other group. Except maybe the gays.
Gay Jews get extra points. And gay theater Jews? Man, they are golden.
photo above courtesy of Temple Israel, West Bloomfield, MI
Six months after the March attack, the sanctuary was rebuilt
and ready to welcome congregants for Rosh Hashana services.