The Magical Zoo
Veteran XV
From Seinfeld to bagels, it was always easy to be a Jew in America. What changed? | Hadley Freeman | News | The Guardian
Jewish-American identity seems like it should be a pretty straightforward thing – after all, where is it easier and safer to be Jewish than in the US? I grew up in New York City, where bagels are as much of a staple as sliced bread. Not for nothing did Jesse Jackson refer to the city as “Hymietown”, for which he later apologised, and it’s a testament to the rarity of such nakedly antisemitic remarks during my childhood that I still remember that one, said in 1984. But even when we’d visit my mother’s hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, we could still buy dreidels and menorah-shaped confetti at my grandmother’s local pharmacy, just next to the in-store nativity scene. It isn’t just us elite, east coast, alternative, intellectual, leftwing (“Jack, just say, Jewish, this is taking for ever,” as Liz Lemon said on 30 Rock) American Jews who take our assimilation for granted.
Jewish-American identity seems like it should be a pretty straightforward thing – after all, where is it easier and safer to be Jewish than in the US? I grew up in New York City, where bagels are as much of a staple as sliced bread. Not for nothing did Jesse Jackson refer to the city as “Hymietown”, for which he later apologised, and it’s a testament to the rarity of such nakedly antisemitic remarks during my childhood that I still remember that one, said in 1984. But even when we’d visit my mother’s hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, we could still buy dreidels and menorah-shaped confetti at my grandmother’s local pharmacy, just next to the in-store nativity scene. It isn’t just us elite, east coast, alternative, intellectual, leftwing (“Jack, just say, Jewish, this is taking for ever,” as Liz Lemon said on 30 Rock) American Jews who take our assimilation for granted.
