Ironically, I am Jewish but I look Italian.
Bergen County? As in NEW JERSEY?! Astonishing. I would expect that kind of behavior from somewhere where Jews are somewhat less common. Then again, I live on Long Island, not exactly a No Jews Allowed zone, and an acquaintance swears that when she was growing up, a kid asked to see her horns!
People are astonishing in their asininity.
As far as resenting Jews for indirectly “causing” your trouble, imagine how people who really ARE Jews must feel.
If you could manage it, and were in no danger of getting belted by the A-hole in question, I would suggest that you respond to the next myopic anti-Semite with a smile, a wave, and a hearty “Mazel Tov!”
Actually the town in which I grew up has a substantial Jewish populace (and no, I don’t look like the mailman) - in fact, in my third grade class IIRC, 23 out of 26 students were of the Jewish faith.
Damn you, Libertarian, where were you when I needed a witty retort?
Tenar - I can’t imagine how Jews feel. I only know what I experience - IMO the vast majority of people who go through a similar discrimination will have a support group - family or community members - that provides a source of strength when being subjected to direct hatred. I don’t. Perhaps that is why I will have (fleeting) feelings of resentment. Perhaps I will find my support group here.
Thanks to all for adding to this thread - keep em coming!
I’ve been asked on a couple of occasions if I was Jewish. Can’t really say the askers have a point: while my nose may be a tad larger than the average Dutch nose, I’d say I look more Mediteranean (but with pale white skin :)) than Jewish. Also, the encounters were never nasty, people were just curious I suppose. Then again, maybe I’m naive, and they were really making sure I WASN’T Jewish before proceeding. I doubt it, though.
I’m making no issue of the name–except that for at least four easily indicated reasons (two of which I provided), the name would never be given to a Jewish lad.
Look Jewish? Once I started reading it, I was hoping to beat Kyla to this thread. But she’s quicker on the draw.
What is Jewish? It’s one of the more difficult appellations applied to humans to describe. It is a formal religion, with various denominations, but not all Jews are practicing, or even of the faith. Is it an ethnicity? You can identify more than one Jewish cultural group. And it certainly doesn’t qualify as a “race,” because even that scientifically challenged terminology can’t account for the wide variance of “racial” characteristics found amongst those who can be described as Jewish.
Just curious, where in the country do you live? I ask because it seems bizarre to me to even hear this kind of attempted denigration.
I found out a couple of years ago that my great-grandfather was Jewish (Frank from Germany); does that make me Jewish?
Frank? Wow. Have you done some more research? You might be related to Anne for all you know!
Coldie, I hadn’t really thought of that, but when you consider that on Hitler’s rise to power, only 1% of Germany’s population was Jewish, it is something to consider.
Hmmmm…, how do I go about checkin’ that out?
Wow. I am Jewish, I look fairly “Jewish” (although I’ve also had people guess me for Greek, Italian, and several times while living in Glendale, people thought I was Armenian), and I’ve thankfully never encountered any anti-semitism. Knock on wood. Sorry you have so many assholes around you, jehovah.
I am Italian/English/Irish (in thirds, ha ha) and look Mediterranean. Occasionally I have been asked if I was Jewish, usually by Orthodox Jews who wanted to remind me to celebrate the sabbath. I usually reply, politely and accurately, that I’m not Jewish but my wife is. That ends the conversation swiftly.
The worst problem with being asked the question in the context of an anti-semetic rant (aside from having to listen to the rant in the first place) is that it puts you in a nasty situation, somewhat like being asked “are you a n----r lover?” To say no somehow suggests you sympathize with the moron asking the question.
I do like Libertarian’s reply.
Jehovah68, when you quite naturally feel a resentment to the Jews for what you are being subjected to, it might help to remember that oppressors count on getting one half of the oppressed to attack the other. I’m sorry you have encountered so many fools in my home state.
Fifteen Iguana
Start with www.jewishgen.org, and run your last name and see what you can dig up. There’s tons of neat info on the site (I volunteer for them occasionally).
Is there such a thing as Jewdar? (You know, the Tribal counterpart to gaydar.) I’m Jewish, and am frequently mistaken for all sorts of things, from Armenian (by Armenians, on several occasions) to Italian to Argentinian (although never, say, Swedish). But the other Jews always guess right.
Once, in college, I was walking down the street with a Puerto Rican friend, speaking Spanish for chrissakes, and was stopped by the Lubavitchers on Washington Square in NYC. (It was close to Passover, and the had parked the Mitzvah Tank on the edge of the park and were trying to drag any Jewish people they could find up to say a prayer or two.) I stopped for a moment, and asked the guy what he meant by that, and why was he asking me of all people? He laughed and said, “That’s a Jewish response; answering a question with a question!”
Huh. I’m also Irish with some Scottish and have almost black hair, pale skin, and hazel eyes. Very black Irish except for the eyes, which should be blue or green.
My last name is 17th-century French, but so corrupted that people don’t know what to make of it and I’ve gotten invitations from the Sons of Italy to join!
I have been thought Jewish, too, but mostly by other Jewish folks, usually middle-aged men and women and Lubavitchers looking for converts in midtown Manhattan. Maybe it’s because I love musical theater (I went to Adolph Green’s memorial service last month, what a moving tribute!) and Catskills humor, and have unconsciously picked up the sense of humor and a sort of cadence. I dunno.
Sometimes I wished I had my mother’s name, the one I used before the Winter of Our Missed Content wiped out the name I had here before last year (couldn’t remember the PW either)–McKenna. Life might be simpler.
Oddly enough, same thing happened to my Dad–see FiestyMongol’s thread for the story. To the thugs who attacked him because he was breaking up a fight, he was Jewish because he was a white New Yorker. Sheesh.
I’m Jewish, but I look convincingly Greek (or Mediterrainian). Not Israeli or Arab though.
I’m Jewish. Actually the token Jew in a small town in the West that see Catholics as strangely foreign so you can imagine their unfamiliarity with me.
I’m not sure what I look like. I don’t know how many times I have heard, “You’re Jewish, huh? Funny you don’t look Jewish…No, I take that back. Now that I think about it, yeah, you do look Jewish.”
What does that mean?
For the most part my uniqueness as a single representative of an entire religion has shielded me from a great deal of anti-semitism. But one time a young tough trying to insult me (I imagine to impress his friends) shouted out, “Stupid kike,” but he apparently learned the insult by reading it (either on line or in some book, I guess) and he pronounced it “KeeKee”. It took me awhile to figure out what he was attempting to say. And then when I did, I really was thrown for what to do. I didn’t think it correct to correct his pronunciation because afterall it was an attempt at an insult, but at the same time it is hard to get really angry at something that sounds so silly but still you feel you should.
My secretary who was nearby asked me what he said, and I explained and she broke up laughing. That ended up being the best response. He looked at me and then at her and then went away muttering.
TV
One time I was in a book store (the sci-fi/fantasy section, no less) and this guy walked up to me and said “Have yew been saved?!” I, being somewhere around 10 years old at the time, answered, “No, sir, actually I’m Jewish.” To which he yelled at me “Yew Killed Christ!!!” Needless to say I ran like the frightened little girl I was.
I do, to respond to the “looking jewish” thing, look like a “typical Russian jew” despite my only having that heritage from my mother’s side (I’m also English, Irish, French, German, and Swiss. Go figure, huh?). I have the stocky peasant build, dark hair, semi-olivey complexion, widow’s peak, and nose bump thing going, but then, my lab partner in biology is tiny, thin, blonde, blue-eyed, freckeled, and also Jewish. Who knows?
I was asked where my horns were back in sixth grade. I let the girl feel my whole head to reassure her that I didn’t have any.
I also got a lot of, “what do you DO on Christmas, then?” or, more recently, “don’t you have a Christmas tree for your son, at least?” Answers: go out for Indian or Chinese food to celebrate my mother’s birthday, and No, we have a menorah. Why, do you have a Shinto shrine in your house, or a statue of the Buddha, for your kids? Why on earth not?
I didn’t get a lot of hatred, really. Just a lot of kids (and some adults) who couldn’t wrap their minds around the idea that someone they knew–and sorta liked–was really, really not Christian. At all.
By the way, some of my mother’s family (Jewish Polish emigres) looked so Irish that her brother made up a fake Irish name to attract the chicks in downtown Philly back in the 30’s. (He did marry a nice Jewish girl though!)
Alrighty, I’ll bite. Widow’s peak? Enlighten me. 
I’m not, but half my ancestors were. Not a one of us “looks” Jewish. So being a typical middle aged white male, fat and balding, I get to hear all sorts of racist, anit-Semitic, anti-Catholic, crap from people who are petty idiots. I also hear anti- fundamentalist crap all the time too. The only beef I have with fundamentalist Christians is that some of them think their particular brand of Christianity should be legislated. That drives me nuts.
Coldie, a widow’s peak is where the hairline on a forehead makes a little point. Like Eddie Munster, but not quite as pronounced. It is a genetic trait. I have (or used to have) one. It is not indicative of Jewish heritage, I get mine from the non-Jewish side of my family.
Nope. I am of Italian and Austrian descent. I have the Mediteranean coloring, the German name and I live in NY.(Means I get mistaken a lot) One time at work ,we were being sent for training in the fall. One of the supervisors (who was Jewish) told me than he and I would have to reschedule our training. After a conversation in which I probably sounded very stupid -“Why?” " Because we’re scheduled over the holidays?"“What holidays?”- it became apparent that he thought I was Jewish. I guess he never noticed those ashes on my forehead every year. Other times I was mistaken for Jewish involved the Mitzvah Tank outside of Brooklyn College when I was a student.