Shit Christians Say to Jews

[thoughtful]

I once worked with a bunch of people who could not get it through their heads that I was not from New York. Somehow, to them, the rule is that All Jews Are From New York City.

Every vacation, the same people would ask me if I was going to New York to visit family, and I would patiently remind them that I was not from New York . . . lather, rinse, repeat . . . :roll:

[Peas n carrots]

A lot of our current social group is Jewish and we try to be reasonably respectful when inviting people over for meals. Substituting smoked duck for ham, that kind of thing.

I did have one evening, though, where we invited one friend over after work on the spur of the moment. She'd had a really rough day and I told her to come over and we'd feed her soup and fresh bread. The soup was creamy turnip soup that starts off with "sauté onions in bacon..." and finishes with "add cream to serve."

I still remember standing in the kitchen asking the SO "wait, can we mix cream with bacon and still serve it to R?" He looked at me. I looked at him. Then collapsed in "OMG, stupid!!" :doh:

We swapped out the bacon for curry powder and olive oil -- and discovered another really yummy way to make creamy turnip soup.

I made a stupid today too. I was on a conference call and was chatting with the other person on the line while waiting for the rest of the group to call in. I asked her if she got all her holiday shopping done, to which she replied she had got it done last week. I kept on chatting about how behind ball I was and how I should have been more like her! Later on in the call it came up she was Jewish. I feel bad....I should not have just assumed she was celebrating Christmas. :doh:

[Hane]

I'd suggest to anyone who is interested in Jewish immigrant (or other immigrant) culture to visit the tenement museum in NYC. http://www.tenement.org/

They have an amazing way of showing what life was really like for immigrants. I would hope that this would cure anyone of the idea that Jews are all rich, or that the Irish are all alcoholics or whatever other stupid stereotypes there are. It's really an indication of how hard people worked and what they sacrificed to give their kids a better life.

In a way its amazing that a century ago you had immigrant mothers and fathers working the way they did in order to send some of their kids to school and university. And now there is a segment of the public that idolizes people who had opportunities like a university education who choose to deny their children a decent education and opportunities and call it religion and protection.

I strongly endorse visiting the Tenement Museum! I've been there twice, and it helped me understand so much about stories my grandmother told me about when she was young. (She was born in NYC's Little Italy, near Chinatown, to parents who had emigrated from Genoa in the 1880s, and worked in a shirtwaist factory from about 1910 to 1923.)

I suspect that there is lots of this [Nazi-era] stuff lying around in people's attics and the decent human beings don't know what to do with it.

My daughter and I are two of 'em. Her father's mother emigrated here from Germany as a teenager in the 1920s. Half the family had come to the US; half remained in Germany. Somewhere in my house is a mint-condition copy of the Olympics yearbook from the year Jesse Owens took the gold in Berlin, a gift her family sent her. The thing gives me the creeps, with the big swastika on the cover, so we should just contribute it to someplace like the Yale Library.

Oh, and my MIL's little sister, back in Germany, was a member of the Hitler Youth. According to the family, it was "something like Girl Scouts"--but mandatory. And racist. I met my MIL's sister, and she was a sweet, kind woman. Apparently the Hitler Youth thing didn't stick.

[pomology]

Thankfully, I don't get that many dumb comments and questions. Maybe it's because such a large percentage of my friends are Jewish (which is completely random, because most of the Jews that I know who I like I didn't mean through a Jewish school/camp/organization) I don't have a problem explaining legitimate questions.

I do have a friend who is an extremely devout questions. And she would ask me questions like "Do you keep kosher because God will love you more if you do?" that I didn't really know how to respond to.

Fuck, I meant devout Catholic, not devout questions. I was also totally so we when I made that mistake and I'm not now. Go figure...

[mystikchick17]

I don't know if it matters to you at all, but double-check if there is automatic acceptance by the Conservative movement as well. Different congregations have different standards.

My conversion will be recognized because it will be done by a beit din of three rabbis, per halacha, which in turn makes my children Jewish. My eventual marriage would be a done deal were I to ever join a Conservative synagogue, something that is pretty much unlikely (but never say never, right?).

My rabbi was very clear to me when I first met with him that my conversion would be recognized in the Reform and Conservative movements, but obviously that the Orthodox world was a whole other kettle of fish and that should I ever want to make aliyah, I would not be able to get religiously married in Israel.