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Obama's Security Advisor on Video telling Anti-Semitic Joke - Page 3

post #61 of 66
4/28/10 at 6:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckblv View Post
I just posted a link to a jewish website but I'm sure your old boyfriend is more of an expert on Orthodox Jewish tradition.
I didn't realize you were confining the dicussion to Orthodox Jews - especially since they are in the minority in the US.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckblv View Post
Who was the, "flesh and blood Rabbi that has a face and a name" again? Was that your boyfriend?
What exactly is your intent with remarks like this?

I could write a long post about my experiences with the Conservative and Reform Jews that I lived with and the Conservative family I almost married into but I am not the type to let my personal life (even if it is in the past) all hang out on public forums and frankly I think it would be a waste of my time. Instead I'll post a link to a Jewish joke that I find appropriate.
Son, promise me you won’t marry a shiksa

I will say something about the concept of being Jewish by virtue of "ancestry" since my grandfather was forced to make sure he wasn't when he lived in Slovakia in the 1930s. Using your definition of "Jewish," which is the same as what the Nazis were using at the time, I might not even be here to carry on this dicussion if he had.

Judaism is a faith, not a genetically inherited condition.
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post #62 of 66
4/28/10 at 6:32am
Regardless of what the word Jew or Jewish means, the fact is he played on a stereotype of their business practises (ie greed) and not their religion itself, so the argument of who is Jewish doesn't really apply - the joke was still prejudice against a group of people (be it a race or religion) and it wasn't even a funny joke when it was a weary traveller (rather than taliban) and the store owner had no race/religion/anything to describe him, he was purely the store owner.
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post #63 of 66
4/28/10 at 6:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by icklemiss21 View Post
Regardless of what the word Jew or Jewish means, the fact is he played on a stereotype of their business practises (ie greed) and not their religion itself, so the argument of who is Jewish doesn't really apply - the joke was still prejudice against a group of people (be it a race or religion) and it wasn't even a funny joke when it was a weary traveller (rather than taliban) and the store owner had no race/religion/anything to describe him, he was purely the store owner.
Agreed. I just didn't get the least tickle out of it. I sure hope this guy is better at security than comedy.
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post #64 of 66
4/28/10 at 8:23am
To the best of my knowledge (this thread is getting pretty long), no one has noted that the joke in question was told during a speech given to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Now, given the discussion here regarding Judaism and race, I'm not going to guess how many Jews were in the audience. However, given the Institute's ties to AIPAC, I think it's pretty safe to say that the audience was for the most part sympathetic to Israel.

I'm guessing that Jones thought this group would appreciate a joke about a couple of Jewish guys putting one over on the Taliban. Obviously, this was a miscalculation on his part (I've read that although many people in the audience laughed, at least a couple of others complained). The joke was ill-advised. However, to equate this with some sort of broader anti-Semitism on the part of the audience (let alone the entire administration) seems to be quite a stretch to me.

If anyone's interested, the Institute's web page has a statement on Jones's talk (the whole thing, not just the joke) and what it might mean for U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East.
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post #65 of 66
4/28/10 at 9:14am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcat View Post
I have to assume you are. or simply refuse to believe that using "'Jewish" to connote some sort of separate "nation", "race". "breed" or what have you, ratherthan a creed, opens the door to discrimination, and often much, much worse, like pogroms or the Holocaust. It's so much easier for people to deny respect or equal treatment to those whom they come to regard as "otherly". Roma are another example who were also Holocaust victims, and are still being persecuted, e.g., in Eastern Europe, because they're "different";
NO! The people that discriminate are the ones that open their own door. People like that need NO reason "to deny respect or equal treatment".

But to accuse others of "dehumanizing" others simply because there is a difference of opinion as to what constitutes who is considered Jewish is wrong IMO. My goodness even Orthodox Jews believe that if a person is born of a Jewish mother they are Jewish and THEY certainly could not be accused of "dehumanizing" their own people, could they?
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post #66 of 66
4/28/10 at 10:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by motoko9 View Post
...I'm guessing that Jones thought this group would appreciate a joke about a couple of Jewish guys putting one over on the Taliban. Obviously, this was a miscalculation on his part (I've read that although many people in the audience laughed, at least a couple of others complained). The joke was ill-advised. However, to equate this with some sort of broader anti-Semitism on the part of the audience (let alone the entire administration) seems to be quite a stretch to me.
I think that is exactly it.
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