Prejudice 2.

(I wrote about all misconceptions about equality with women, blacks, gays and more.)

I heard an interview of Rabbi David Wolpe (Sinai Temple, Los Angeles,) with Stephen Jackson, an American basketball player.  

I did not follow Stephen Jackson’s remarks, but after hearing this conversation I found some quotes in the athletic.com website:

{When Stephen Jackson promoted antisemitic tropes last week, the NBA community faced another chance to fight prejudice… 

Stephen Jackson eventually denounced Hitler after refusing to multiple times, but he immediately then claimed that the Rothschild's “own all the banks” and after acknowledging that doesn’t correlate to all Jews, he said, “that correlates to money though.” }

(Later I heard another basketball player, Desean Jackson, had a remark about what Hitler said.  He got an education from a holocaust survivor who is going to see Auschwitz with him.)

This is a very dear subject to me, this conspiracy theory against the Jews, claiming they own all the banks, they own Hollywood, they plan to control the world.  These are clearly lies that originate from prejudice and misconceptions.  But I’d like to point out that many people still believe these lies and quote them without a second thought.

I would start with Rabbi Wolpe's comment.  This comment is the most convincing and factual to dispel these beliefs:

{I know people with tattoos on their arms.  We know all about suffering and prejudice.  During WWII massacre of the Jews, 6 m out of 18 m were murdered.  That is one third of the Jewish People! If the Jews had that kind of power, in control of the banks and money, how could that happen?}

But, for some reason, many people, ignorant as well as smart, like to believe in conspiracy theories.  Americans in power who point to the Rothchilds, and "look at all the Benjamin's" from the esteemed congresswoman Ihlan Omar.

I encountered myself some of these ignorant remarks in the scientific community where I worked for over forty years.  When I first met my Chinese coworker, in the laboratory in Torrance, she heard that I am from Israel.  Her immediate remark was: "You are Jewish.  You must be rich."  I was astonished!  I tried to educate her, but this woman could only repeat experiments with perfect results.  As far as general knowledge of history, she was hopeless.  Her husband, on the other hand, was a well-read doctor.  So, I gave her Abba Eban's book: "Jews and civilization."  It was made into a TV series on PBS back in the eighties.

One of the memorable points in these series is the historic fact of why Jews became bankers.  As the Church and aristocracy were ruling Europe, Jews were never allowed to own land.  Most peasants and farmers were illiterate, unlike Jewish boys who started reading the Torah at the age of five.  The fact that they were literate and knew some numbers made them successful in banking.  Another reason for the Jews becoming bankers was that Christians were forbidden to loan money with interest.  So this task was passed over to the Jews.

Another lab member was a bright young Syrian pediatrician who won a scholarship to study in the US.  She also heard that I am an Israeli.  I told her later that my parents came to Israel from Iran.  One year we attended a pediatric conference together and we shared a hotel room.  In the evening, at a private moment, she asked me: "Why did your parents leave their country?"  She was incredibly surprised to hear my answer:  "The Jews of Mashad, where my parents lived, were forced to practice Islam.  They had to study the Koran and all their names were Arabic names.  They yearned for a place to practice their religion freely.  That is why they came to Israel." 

My family was not from Europe and we had no relatives who were holocaust survivors.  As a curious student I was interested in learning about the persecutions of the Jews throughout history.  One of the crucial chapters was the period of the pogroms in 19^th century Russia. It culminated in the publication of the book: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.  It is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax, which was shown to be plagiarized from several earlier sources, some not antisemitic in nature, was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century. According to the claims made by some of its publishers, the Protocols are the minutes of 24 sessions of a meeting of the "twelve tribes of Israel", during which Jewish leaders discussed their goal of global Jewish hegemony by subverting the morals of Gentiles, and by controlling the press and the world economies.

This is from the Wikipedia entry under Modern Era:

The Protocols continue to be widely available around the world, particularly on the Internet, as well as in print in Japan, the Middle East, Asia, and South America.

I will close with a question: How is it ever possible to overcome this prejudice that Jews have money and control the world?  More conversations, more education?  Or just open hearts and compassion?