Hey, that’s me! The Mormons took the term from the bible, though, and I think the Mormons are the only group besides Jews to call non-members Gentiles. Basically, in Hebrew, “goy” means “nation”, or “tribe”, or “people”, and can be, and in the bible, is used to refer to the Israelites too. Abraham was promised he would be the father of a “goy gadol”, a great nation. In practice, though, it’s used to refer to “another nation” (Hebrew also uses the term “nokhri”, which means “stranger”.
Anyway, when Jerome was translating the Christian bible into Latin, he translated the Hebrew word “goy” and the Greek word "ethnos"into the Latin word “gentilis”, which is Latin for “tribe” or “nation”, and that got turned in English into Gentile.
A capital crime, no less. Which is why, between 1000 and 1200 (pdf cite) an estimated 15,000 Christians moved from Europe to Muslim-ruled lands, where conversion from Christianity to Judaism was not illegal.
The Arabic actually is kafir. The word, often translated as “infidel”, actually means one who “covers up” the truth of Allah, and traditionally did not apply to Jews and Christians, who were instead referred to as “People of the Book.” Kafir has come to mean more all non-Muslims and to take on an exclusively pejorative cast.
I thought all Bene Gesserit were Jewish - didn’t they found the Trilateral Commision? Or was that the Illuminati? (Don’t worry about me, I’ll just sit here and deal with the spice agony all by myself. Sure I may die, but don’t bother about me. You could though at least call. Would it kill you to pick up the phone to see if I’m dead yet?)
Am I the only person who found the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Helen Gaius Mohiam as portrayed by Sian Phillips in David Lynch’s Dune to be sexually appealing? I found that her authoritativeness and intimidating aura of power were erotically enticing and I was able to overlook the bald spot on her head.
Also, the scene where she is testing Paul with the pain box thing is pretty overtly sexual. As she describes the burning sensation of the hand, she closes her eyes and begins to speak in an erotic tone of voice; then when Paul finally yells “the pain!”, she appears quite blatantly to have an orgasm.
Argent, I believe you are wrong about this theory. How long ago did you take these “classes”? I thought it’s now pretty well established that the reason that Jews in various areas of the world resemble the people around them (N. Europe, Spain, India, S. Africa, Ethiopia, etc. etc) is because the founder population was almost exclusively male. When they migrated to new areas as merchants they took local wives out of necessity. This idea is supported by genetic studies in several places that show a jewish male line of descent (by looking at the Y chromosome) and not so much in the female line (mitochondrial DNA).
Most people in medieval times fled ahead of conflict. They didn’t hang around to be victimized. Also, re: WWII Rape was/is a crime in any army.
I wouldn’t say they’re a small minority, or a minority at all - the largest Mizrachi community are the Moroccan Jews, who are pretty much completely Sephardic; other major Sephardic-Mizrahi communities include the Algerians, the Tunisians, and the Syrians. The Iraqi Jews, historically one of the largest communities, are a mixture of the ancient Babylonian Jews and more recent Sephardic immigrants.
Also, don’t forget the European Sephardic communities. These include the Balkan Jews (most prominently the Bulgarians and Greeks), the Turkish community, and the pre-19th Century Dutch and English Jews. Most outsiders know little to nothing of these proud congregations - perhaps the only European Sephardic Jew Americans have ever encountered is actor Hank Azaria, whose parents hail from Thessaloniki.
If one is interested in some of the diversity that is Jewish then Kulanu may be a good place to start.
What the op illustrates is how biased America (including many American Jews) are in what a Jew is supposed to look like and be like. In truth we Jews are a pretty motley and diverse bunch
That’s where my dad’s side of the family comes from.
DSeid, we largely have Jews themselves, in Hollywood, to thank for the perpetuation of these unpleasant stereotypes. Films continue to feature extremely unappealing Jewish characters far more often than positive ones, in both the looks and behavior departments, despite Jews being involved in the production, direction and writing every step of the way. I think American Jews make fun of themselves a little too much, and that sometimes it can be outright self-hatred.
And Neve Cambell, whose mother is Sephardic from the Netherlands. Her father isn’t Jewish, though.
As for middle eastern Sephardim, the one that most Americans probably know is Paula Abdul, whose father was Lebanese and whose mother was Syrian-Canadian.
Harlan Ellison despises Mel Brooks for this reason. Or despised at least, based on essay I read of his in Harlan Ellison’s Watching, his collection of film criticism.
Of course Harlan Ellison despises most forms of life, so that’s not saying much :p.
