Wow. Mazel Tov on your birthday, Mr. Mason!
This is an absolutely fantastic article from Tablet Magazine.
Do you have Tablet bookmarked? You should.
They always have really great stuff. Wonderful interviews, features, little vignettes.
This interview by David Evanier with Jackie Mason is outstanding.
The questions are thoughtful and Jackie Mason shows, through his very honest and frank answers that he is one of the funniest and smartest Jews alive today.
There are so many excellent nuggets of wisdom in what he says-I can't list them all. You must read the whole thing.
Here are a just a few amazing bits:
What does it mean to you to be a Jew?
"It means that the chances are you are going to be a more intelligent
person, and you’ll have more decency, and you’ll help people whether
they deserve it or not. And no matter what crime any person from any
denomination commits, somehow you’ll always convince yourself it’s your
fault."
Have you experienced much anti-Semitism in your life?
"I did 45 years ago, but I haven’t in the last 30 because the Gentiles
in America have changed from looking down at a Jew 40 years ago to
looking up to a Jew today. They used to condescend to a Jew; now they
apologize to me for not being a Jew. They say their sister-in-law is a
Jew, they’re married to a Jew, they’re trying to move into a Jewish
neighborhood, they want to be a Jew. The only anti-Semitism that I
suffer from today is from Jews."
(Sounds familiar!)
And:
"Even the Jews who are normal are not exactly normal. The truth of the matter is that there’s no such thing as a normal Jew. "
Lastly-on the Jew who hates Jews and Israel:
"And still American Jews who inherited all
this misery are now against Israel because in their own lives they’ve
been so comfortable and doing so good and had such a good time and
enjoying themselves so they have to convince themselves that the Jews
are the oppressors of the Palestinians. It’s always our fault if any
minority has suffered. So, they decided that it’s the Jews’ fault that
the Palestinians are having a rough time. As if the Palestinians would
do better if not for the Jews."
"The Jews have to prove to themselves they’re great humanitarians.
They take up the cause of any underdog. To them a Palestinian is an
underdog because he doesn’t have a fancy car and a big house. But how
are they the underdog if they persecute the Jews all their lives and the
Jews never bother them?"
