Shy to Lock Up Jew Bashers

by Monica Morrison
An observation regarding the impending bigotry at the apex of the financial crisis and the great "pro-America" divide.

When this financial crisis rippled its way from the derivatives to the U.S. real estate market and beyond to the rest of the universe, I began to wait for the other shoe to drop. You know, the Jew-hating shoe.

Those of us who paid attention in history class will be wise to remember the German depression of the early 1900's. After WWI, the economy was in shambles, and hatred for money-lenders was reaching an all-time high. Back then, money-lending was an abominable practice, relegated to only the cruel, the heartless, and to Jewish people. God-fearing Christians back then were still reading and going to church, so they knew that usury was a sin. And so, when the entire economy collapsed, the connection of usury to all of Germany's problems became the popular tome of the time. And then a guy like Hitler came along, rode the wave of popular Jewish resentment, and the rest is history.

My grandfather came to this country as a child--he and his parents fled Hitler-controlled Berlin just in time and came to be Americans. All of the pain that came along with the anti-Semitism that ravaged the country caused my grandfather to deny his cultural heritage throughout all of his life. He changed his name from Lapsenberg to Newman. He had to become a different person to escape the persecution. As a result, I never knew about my Jewish heritage until after he died. I have so many questions for him that I will never be able to ask, and while perhaps I could have figured out how to ask the right questions to him, part of me knows that irrational hatred was a large factor in our stifled communication about my ancestry. The effects of bigotry are vast and long-lasting, and even small amounts of hate can torment those who are powerless to stop it. And so, I cringed when I noticed it beginning again here in America, in New York City no less.

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2008/10/26/2008-10-26_cant_sell_bushwick_home__now_shes_in_for.html

Here is an article about the mortgage crisis affecting Brooklyn. Robert Gearty profiles a female postal worker trying to sell what was once an $800,000 multi-family building now that she has fallen behind on her mortgage payments. She is entering foreclosure and the asking price has been slashed to $540,000. In case they take the comments down for being offensive, they are pasted here:

"Oct 26, 2008 8:18:03 PM

Aww too bad she's not a jew, hear about any of them dirtbags in this siutation???? Didn't think so. if you're a jew life is good, your a thief and a scourge, but a well off jew is still a bloodsucking jew. too bad we are all their victims..."

"Oct 26, 2008 8:19:21 PM
Oh, and by the way, do you think the jew advisor/banker properly explained the consequences to this poor lady. I really doubt it, they took her money and headed for jewburg"

While I haven't heard much anti-semitism in the streets of good ol' Jew York City, I can only begin to imagine how those in the South and in traditional anti-Jewish parts of the country (not to be confused with the anti-America parts of the country) are beginning to feel. Part of what must make it so easy now for the bigots is hearing assholes like Richard S. Fuld, Jr. not apologize for any of this. By refusing to inject any sort of humanity or compassion into any of their self-serving billionaised discourse, they are only making it easier to pass the blame right to the same people who always end up with it. Part of my deepest fear of a conservative government is the fascism that conservatism seems to attract. After Barack wins the election and the conservatives are shipped out of Washington, I wonder what may be bound to come next. Something tells me that the backlash may be nastier than any of us thought possible in the land of freedom and pursuit of happiness. I just hope they don't take all of us from "anti-America" and put us into Pro America Reassimilation Camps.