on the subject of "blood libel"

[rm]

Someone else on my friends list did a poll, and I realized that I was also curious and have enough people here to get a large sample even if it's not a scientific one.

Since my big discovery of today was that lots of people didn't realize that the "blood libel" thing was a totally anti-semitic thing to say and I was surprised by that, the question becomes is this one of those things _every_ Jewish person knows but non-Jews may not have encountered?

ETA: Comments filled with fascinating anecdata. Have fun.

For those of you who still haven't caught up with this, Boing Boing explains.

Poll below.

[Poll #1667388]

Comments

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

I didn't know any Jewish people until college. When in college I remembered a short curly brown haired bignosed pushy English high school teacher named Wiedeward or Wiedeman and thought "ahhhh."

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

I am very sure that you weren't trying to be offensive with your comment. That said, perpetuating stereotypes really isn't cool. Not all Jews have big noses, although that is how we're depicted in awful anti-semetic cartoons. We're not all pushy. And we don't all have German sounding last names. Even if well meant, using stereotypes to come to conclusions about people (She was all those things, so she must have been Jewish!) isn't helpful to anyone. As far as you know, she could have been an Episcopalian.

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

"As far as you know, she could have been an Episcopalian."

quite right

my original statement is correct, though, it was a good chance that one of my high school teachers was jewish, though I didn't know the religion of any of my teachers.

I know that Jews come in all stripes and colors, but anyone who is saying that there isn't a Jewish look, that applies to a whole lot of Jews, needs to take a better look around during their next shul.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Um, I wasn't particularly put off by the first comment because we're not all super precise all the time especially on subjects with which we don't have intense familiarity, but I'm put off by your defense of that comment here.

Judaism is a faith, not a race. Historically, Jews have come from a variety of ethnic groups and some of those groups have at times been insular or had particular emigration patterns that have created a more significant presence in the US and so shape the US conception of what Jews look like.

HOWEVER.... I'm trying to think how to phrase this.

When you effectively say "we all know what a Jew is likely to look like" that language, innocent though it essentially is here is also the sort of language that got millions and millions of Jews killed.

I get in taxi cabs here in New York, and cab drivers will ask me if I'm a Jew. Sometimes, it's because they're Jewish too. Sometimes, it's because they think Jews are murders; it's because of blood libel, and then I'm in a cab in a dangerous situation. I have learned to lie about my Jewishness in certain circumstances -- this in the 21st century in New York City -- to survive. I have also been chased out of stores in anti-semetic Europe for appearing Jewish.

You want to know the punchline? My nose is ROMAN. From my SICILIAN, CATHOLIC father. My mother is the Jew. And she does "look like one" whatever that means.

Also, your first comment? You can tell a Jew because they're pushy?

Just no.

Justify less. Listen more.

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

"Justify less. Listen more."

fair enough

[rm.livejournal.com]

Bah, and in teh middle of my screed I let out a not... "my mother does not look like a Jew" was a part of the point (which sounds awful out of context) I was trying to make there.

Thank you.

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

I hardly imagine that you have been to *my* shul, as we're mostly sephardic. We don't look like that. But I do know that plenty of people have been in harmful and dangerous situations because of the Jewish "look." Imagine trying to make your statement about any other group of people and imagine the reaction. Stereotypes are not innocent.

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

I've been told I look scandinavian, I've even had people start speaking to me in the borgy-borg-borg languages just out of the blue.

But yeah, not the same as being called a Jew randomly, there's a lot of jew hate out there, nobody's going to murder me because they suspect my secret Nordicness or being part of the secret cabal that controls the world's pickled fish.

But that's all beside the point. I shouldn't have responded at all to your comment. First off, while I'm not trying to offend you, I don't care at all if you're offended. Why?

I decided that there's three things that internet trolls do. They criticize anonymously (people they don't know), they get offended on behalf of other people, and they go back to their own, friends-locked journal, and rally people to their cause, to mercilessly beat the responder into submission. You got the first two covered, and I see that friends-locked LJ too. I hope you enjoy your day.

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

Hey, there's a first time for everything, but I'm sad that the first time I'm being called a troll is over letting someone know that they're perpetuating harmful stereotypes. I'm not offended on the behalf of other people, I'm offended on my own behalf. In case you missed it, I am a Jew. This is a battle I have been fighting my whole life. I have had people, in all seriousness, ask to touch my horns. There are countries I can not travel to without fearing for my life.

Also, I am hardly anonymous. The fact that you don't know my IRL name doesn't make me anonymous. It makes me pseudononymous, but I'm not trying to hide behind no one knowing who I am. I wasn't trying to attack you. Just let you know when you're saying something that's been used to attack, silence and harm me, my family and my friends.

Using it as a chance to tell me that I should shut up? Rather proving my point. I'm not much for internet fights, and this didn't have to be one. It still doesn't.