Of course there is really vile anti-Semitism in Wagner’s writings, but I can’t accept the idea that characters like Beckmesser and Alberich are Jewish stereotypes in disguise. Would Beckmesser be a court councillor if he was meant to be a Jewish stereotype? No Jew could occupy such a role.
When two drivers curse each other on the road, and one of them happens to be a Jew, you can’t define that as anti-Semitism.
I see interracial couples all the time in Nashville. I’m a Jew in Nashville. I’m a gay person in Nashville. It’s a non-issue in most of the time. That’s a huge leap forward.
When we come to the hospital to give birth, we don’t come as a Jew or an Arab; we come as a human being.
I’ve always felt robbed of something by people not knowing I was a Jew.
Religions cannot change you. If you are angry, you will become an angry Muslim or Hindu. If you are righteous, you will become a righteous Christian or Jew.
We get the worrywart, the hypochondriac, the money-grubbing miser, the intractable negotiator… Some would say certain of these refer to the stereotypical, or ‘stage’ Jew. But objectively speaking, the only crime in humor is an unfunny joke.
If a Jewish group sat down with a Christian conservative group, and there was a so-called Messianic Jew at the table, that would be the end of the meeting.
I’m a minimalist Jew, but on Friday night, I celebrate Shabbat. At sundown, we light candles, say the blessing, and I don’t turn on my computer for 24 hours.
Anytime a person goes into a delicatessen and orders a pastrami on white bread, somewhere a Jew dies.
When I see ultra-Orthodox Jews stamping all over Jaffa, or when I see them deciding who is a Jew, I think: ‘What’s happened to the grand dream of Zionism?’ I don’t like to see ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel. What’s wrong with Manchester?
You can be a Christian. You can be Jew. You can be a Muslim. You can be atheist. This is your own choice. But the law, the constitution, the law of the people is above God’s law. So when somebody arrives in Europe, people need to accept those rules.
As a Jew I cannot sit idle while genocidal atrocities continue to unfold in Darfur, Sudan.
The presence of a Jew in any movement no more guarantees it to be innocent of antisemitism than guilty. And that applies to anti-Zionism, too. Anti-Zionist Jews exist, but that tells one nothing about anti-Zionism.
I myself am mixed race – my mother is Korean, and my father is an American Jew – so I’ve always felt other.
Every Jew is my brother, and I will not succumb to hate speech.
As a Jew, I was taught that it was ethically imperative to speak up and to speak out against arbitrary state violence. That was part of what I learned when I learned about the Second World War and the concentration camps.
Jewishness is a very big part of my identity. I am a proud Jew, I would say, who doesn’t practice very actively.
Being from Israel and a Jew is complex already, but with France, there is a freedom and a mix of culture. I have met musicians from all over the world.
There is a famous saying: ‘It’s hard to be a Jew.’ It’s also hard to be a Palestinian. I know that.
I’m the only one in my family – I’m a practicing Jew – who has attached themselves to religion in a more traditional way.
Guilt. It comes naturally to me as a Jew and a Liberal.
The conspiracy theory of the Jew as the hypnotic conspirator, the duplicitous manipulator, the sinister puppeteer is one with ancient roots and a bloody history.
One of the pleasures of being a Jew, I don’t have to tell you, it allows you anti-Semitism.
I’m a Jew. I think every Jew is dark in certain ways.
