Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Fellow Jews - Be Proud!

The following article was printed in The Gazette Telegraph of Colorado (I don't know the date):

"Jews Go Home"

By William Eiken

"Jews Go Home!" - Well, now this is nothing new. Never in the past have you taken this gentle suggestion to move on. But heaven forbid, suppose just this once, you thought that this expression of a few sick people actually expressed the conviction of all the people in this wonderful land of ours, and all of you started to pack your bags and leave for parts unknown.

"Jews go home, we don't want Jews, we want oil!" But before you leave, could you do me a favor? Would you leave behind your formula for the Salk vaccine with me before you leave? You wouldn't be so heartless as to let my children contract polio?

And would you leave your knack for government and politics, and persuasion and literature and your good food. And would you please leave me with the secret of your desire to succeed?

And please have pity on us. Please show us the secret of how to develop such geniuses as Einstein and Steinmetz and so many others who have helped us all. After all, we owe you a lot for the atomic bomb, most of our rocket research, and perhaps the fact that we are alive today. Instead, we could have been looking up from our chains and from our graves at Hitler, old but glad, driving slowly by in one of our cadillacs had he succeeded in reaching the atom bomb and not us.

On your way out, Jews, will you do me another favor? Will you please drop by my house and pick me up too? I'm sure I could not live in a land where you were not to be found. For if ever you were to leave, love goes with you, democracy and morality goes with you, everything me and my buddies fought for in World War II goes with you.

Just pull up in front of my house, slow down and honk because so help me, I'm going with you too.

Yours sincerely,

William Eiken.


Fellow Jews: Be proud of your heritage. Never apologize for who you are or where you came from. - JF

11 comments:

Stacey said...

This was wonderful. It reminds of what Mark Twain wrote about the Jews. Are you familiar with it?

I have lived and worked in places where I was the only Jew many had ever encountered. And oh, the looks I got and questions I've been asked.

I have always been proud to be a Jew and of the long rabbinic tradition in my ancestry. And I will never apologize for it. Ever.

Anonymous said...

Is this story a fabrication? I checked out the Calorodo Springs Gazette and their archives only seem to extend until 1988...any outside verifacation?

http://www.gazette.com/index.php

and so it shall be... said...

That's nice. Some of my best friends are Jews.

and so it shall be... said...

that's funny....I couldn't corroborate the origin or author of this story on Google. where did it come from? Sounds like more gratuitous fluff written by "some gentile" to make Jews feel good about themselves.

The Jewish Freak said...

SW & J: Thank you for the attempts at fact checking. I got the article from a book called "The In Depth Study Guide to the Let's Get Biblical Tape series" by Rabbi Tovia Singer. It says that article has been reprinted in more than 250 newspapers throughout North America. Unfortunately there is no date of publication provided. However, you may still feel good about being Jewish.

The Jewish Freak said...

Stacey - re: "questions I've been asked" - I find it interesting that christians are far more curious about Judaism than Jews are curious about christianity.

and so it shall be... said...

"It says that article has been reprinted in more than 250 newspapers throughout North America. "

Maybe Tovia Singer needs gentile praise to feel self-fulfilled. As for Google, the author and that article title never appeared together.

Stacey said...

I find it interesting that christians are far more curious about Judaism than Jews are curious about christianity.

Good point. I always figured that this was because Christianity is so prevalent in this world that everyone knows about it, yet we Jews are small in numbers, so are sort of an enigma to them.

Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

That's so weird.

Anonymous said...

With nauseatting self-congratulation like this, do you really wonder why people don't like your tribe?

Binyomin said...

No fabrication, here is the original:

January 10, 1960
Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph from Colorado Springs, Colorado · Page 47

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/62097104/