Kesher Talk

Meanwhile, back in Montreal . . . . Damian Penny has an update on the Muslim student group at Concordia U whose website promotes the usual Jew-hating. (I noted his original post the other day.) One of the books their site promotes is Henry Ford's The International Jew. (Yes, that Henry Ford, who was a prominent popularizer of "the international Jewish conspiracy" in his day.)

This reminds me of an incident about 15 years ago, when I lived in a mostly black, poor, inner city neighborhood in Philadelphia. Every year there was a big neighborhood block party with an African-unity race pride theme: vendors of soul food, dashikis, Black Pride pamphlets and books, reggae bands, non-profit organizations of various kinds. That particular year some Back-Jewish tension was in the news - I forget whether the precipitating issue was Crown Heights, Nation of Islam speakers on campus, Public Enemy rap songs, or what.

I was wandering around with a friend, eating Jamaican jerk goatmeat on a stick, noticing all the anti-Semitic screeds piled on the book tables, and getting increasingly pissed off. Finally I saw The International Jew and lost it. I picked up the book and began to rant at the disconcerted black woman staffing the table. "You want to be anti-Semitic - fine. You want to be stupid clueless assholes who blame Jews for all your problems, go ahead. But this whole street fair is about Black Pride. Half these books are about self-reliance and telling the White Man to go to hell. So why are you selling anti-Semitic bullshit by a dead white male capitalist industrialist? Why are you letting fucking Henry Ford, for chrissakes, tell you what to think? You can't come up with your own fucking anti-Semitism, you have to borrow it from stupid white people?"

The woman stared at me, petrified, like she had never seen a pissed-off liberal Jew before. (I guess she hadn't.) My friend led me away, still ranting.

Henry fucking Ford, or godssakes . . . .

posted by Judith @ 8/30/2002 01:56:44 PM