Even Your Best Jewish Friends
Won't Tell You

But all I said was:

"He really looked Jewish."

WHAT YOU'VE REALLY SAID WAS . . .

There have been stereotypes about the way Jewish people look for centuries. In da Vinci's Last Supper, Judas was portrayed as a hook-nosed, swarthy Semite. The other Apostles were angelic blonds. Hitler used the way the Jews "looked" as proof that they were not part of his "master race ('The fact is, there are blue-eyed, blond-haired Jews as well as brown-eyed, olive-skinned Jews. There are Black Jews and Oriental Jews. One research study showed that Jews tend to reflect the physical characteristics of the surrounding people. Consider the following percentages of Jews with blond hair: 3% of Turkish Jews had blond hair; Ukrainian Jews, 15%; English Jews, 26%; and German Jews, 32%. As far as the "Jewish nose" goes, there was actually an American research project done on it that showed only 14% of the Jewish people actually had the stereotyped hooked nose'. [1]

But all I said was:

"Those Jews are all rich. They sure know how to make money."

WHAT YOU'VE REALLY SAID WAS . . .

This statement brings up the persistent rumor that Jewish people will go to any lengths to make money. Shylock, the moneylender in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, popularized an anti-Semitic stereotype. What most people don't know is that the Jewish people were banned from joining the European craft guilds. Jews were also put in the position of being moneylenders in the Middle Ages because the Church forbade Christians from engaging in the trade. Many Gentiles did lend money, and because of the high risks they took in doing so, they charged interest rates several hundreds of times higher than the Jewish lenders. In actuality, there are still large pockets of Jewish poor. In New York City, 15% of the Jews are poor, with another 5% living between poverty levels and what the Bureau of Labor Statistics considers the lower income level. [2]

But all I said was:

"Those Jews run American business."

WHAT YOU'VE REALLY SAID WAS . . .

Throughout the twentieth century, an anti-Semitic myth has persisted that Jews are secretly plotting to take over the world economic system. A favorite eighteenth-century book of those who hate the Jews, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, purports to be the minutes of a secret council of Jewish businessmen who plan to take over the world economy. The Protocols has repeatedly been proven to be a mixture of farce and fiction, yet the book and its malicious slander are still widely distributed today. Fortune magazine reported as early as 1936, "There is no basis whatsoever that Jews monopolize United States business and industry" Again in 1976 it was reported that top corporate officers are overrepresented by Episcopalians and Presbyterians and underrepresented by Catholics, Baptists, and Jews. Gerald Krevetz writes that, of the 56 major corporations in America that could be controlled by 5% or 10% of their stockholders (including families, corporations, and financial institutions), only three have substantial Jewish involvement."[3] But don't try to confuse anti-Semites with the facts. Hitler and every anti-Semite before and after him have relied on whipping crowds into a fury with this patent lie. For example, only a few months ago a Greek court ruled that the Jehovahs Witnesses is "an organization close to Judaism aiming at the creation of a world Zionist empire with Jerusalem at its center"![4]

But all I said was:

"Well, if they don't run business, they sure run the banks."

WHAT YOU'VE REALLY SAID WAS . . .

Jews controlling the money was another favorite Nazi cry, yet in 1939 when they were proclaiming this, only 0.6% of the 93,000 American bankers were Jewish. By 1973, a study of 377 persons in senior executive positions in 25 banks outside of New York showed that only 1 executive was Jewish. In New York, only 3 of the top 86 officers of major banks were Jewish.[5] In 1978, Senator William Proxmire (then head of the United States Senate Banking Committee) told Esquire magazine that the U.S. banks were "controlled by the most Waspish elements . . . with no Jews, no Catholics, and no Blacks [running the show]." [6]

But all I said was:

"And we all know that the liberal press is run by a Jewish conspiracy."

WHAT YOU'VE REALLY SAID WAS . . .

It's true that there are a large number of Jews in the media, perhaps because God has created the Jewish people to be communicators of His message. Yet, only 3% of the 1,760 daily American newspapers are owned by Jews.'[7] In many cases, such ownership has actually worked against the Jewish people. For years, it was believed that no Jew could hope to become a managing editor of The New York Times because the owning Ochs-Sulzberger family was acutely sensitive about The Times' reputation for "objectivity."[8] Despite this, it has been a repeated charge by anti-Semites that America's press is controlled and dominated by a small group of Eastern Jews.

National networks also show a striking non-Jewish bias. Although the three major networks were principally created by Jews, a report from a conservative Heritage Foundation noted that the networks, when covering the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, "tended to exaggerate the destruction wrought by the Israelis, while dwelling most briefly on that done by the PLO"[9]

But all I said was:

"Talk about cheap, Jews really know how to pinch a penny."

WHAT YOU'VE REALLY SAID WAS . . .

This is a comment that brings back the images of Shylock and other stingy characters in literature and history. The fact is, Jews tend to support philanthropic organizations and causes generously. Charity is a basic tenet of the Jewish religion. However, Jewish people are no worse than anyone else. It's interesting that the Scots are "thrifty" and the American housewives "love bargains" but to the Jews we ascribe the most base of motives for having the same innocuous characteristic.

But all I said was:

"The reason America has to be in the Middle East is because Israel continues to make trouble there."

WHAT YOU'VE REALLY SAID WAS . . .

Much of today's anti-Semitism focuses on the nation of Israel. It's no surprise to Christians that such hatred would be used by Satan against the Jewish people and the land of Israel. However, very little is said about the need for America to be in the Middle East because of the large Soviet presence. It is strategically wise and important that we support the only working democracy in the area. If the Soviet threat seems slight, consider a recent report published by the London Economist, where it states that the Russians have agreed to train 3,000 to 4,000 Palestinian terrorists and to supply PLO training centers with East German instructors.

The Soviet presence in the Middle East is indeed a growing part of USSR's drive for strategic supremacy, a threat made very clear in a conversation between a New York Times reporter and King Hussein of Jordan. Hussein admitted, "the increase of Soviet military weapons and the relative decline of United States military power" was reason to worry about the future.[10]

Notes

1. M. Hirsh Goldberg, Just Because They're Jewish, Stein and Day, 1979, pp. 31, 34. [Back]

2. Gerald Krefetz, Jews and Money--The Myths and the Reality, Ticknor & Fields, 1982, pp. 233, 234. [Back]

3. Ibid., p. 56. [Back]

4. Evangelical Press News Service, January 18, 1985. [Back]

5. Gerald Krefetz, Jews and Money, p. 60. [Back]

6. M. Hirsh Goldberg, Just Because, p. 184. [Back]

7. Gerald Krefetz, Jews and Money, p. 73. [Back]

8. Stephen Isaacs, Jews and American Politics, Doubleday & Co., 1974, p. 47. [Back]

9. Milton Himmelfarb and David Singer, eds., American Jewish Year Book, The American Jewish Committee, 1983, p. 121. [Back]

10. Dr. Max Kampelman, speech entitled "Jewish Power: Myth or Reality,"April 2, 1978. [Back]