A guide to dating Jews earns author 'Nazi' tag

[T_i_B]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1557931,00.html

Kristina Grish has been described as a 'Nazi' and little better than a prostitute. Her crime: writing a light-hearted, non-Jewish women's guide to understanding Jewish men.

On websites and letters pages in Israel and the United States, Jewish women have railed at Grish, an American Protestant, accusing her of making it harder for them to find a Jewish man and trying to destroy Judaism.

On the surface, Boy Vey! The Shiksa's Guide to Dating Jewish Men, has little in common with Mein Kampf, but Grish has touched the insecurity of some Jews who feel that marrying outside their religion will lead to its gradual erosion.

The title is a play on the Yiddish exclamation 'Oy vey' and shiksa is a Yiddish word for a non-Jewish woman.

[DRoseDARs]

1. I love how you can always find someone to "play the victim" no matter...

...how benign the imagined slight. :eyes:

[Missy M]

2. I think the Jews have to lighten up a little!

[Clark2008]

4. You haven't met my bubula

He'll think this ruckus is stupid.

:7

[coffeenap]

10. Who is "the Jews"? Is that like"the Christians"? Or "the Muslims"?

Did you intend to expresss prejudice or was it an accident? Since you are here, I will asssume it was an accident, yes?

[dogday]

13. Should it be some Jews?

Cause it is definitely people who are Jewish.

[coffeenap]

19. Surely, you jest. Do you really need to question whether or not

millions of people scattered all over the world, or even the country, share the same perspective? I thought this was DU, not freeperland.

[dogday]

20. I am trying to understand who is upset about this book.

and every time someone says something you take offense. Was it not people of Jewish decent that was upset or not? No one is making offense to anyone.

[coffeenap]

21. Some Jewish people are upset by this book. nt

[dogday]

22. Ok, now I understand

and I thank you for your understanding. See this is how it works. Inform me and I will learn....

[coffeenap]

23. Thanks to you too. I get pissed when I see generalizations about

whole peoples here on DU. We are the ones who are supposed to know that one sweeping generalization can never adequately describe how such a huge number of people will feel. I have made this same argument in favor of other people who have been identified as a unified group--other religions, races, etc. Just because we may share one characteristic, doesn't mean we share all. No personal antagonism intended. Peace to you.

edited for grammar

[Clark2008]

3. OK, when my fiance gets up, I'll have him read the link.

I'm a nice Catholic girl who's dating a Jewish man.

I'll see if HE thinks it's Nazi-like, but chances are that he'll just think it's much ado about nothing.

[Chovexani]

5. Some people really need a sense of humor

And, I don't know, some priorities. :eyes:

[Adrian Luca]

6. Hmmm...I can understand the anger of some Jews

A gentile woman who falls in love with a Jewish man is no better than a Nazi who shoves a child into a gas chamber...the similarities are obvious.

[Berry Cool]

7. Uh, I sure hope you forgot the

:sarcasm: tag there.

Unfortunately I AM a "shiksa" who dated a Jewish guy once who was, apparently, madly in love with me for a year and a half, and then abruptly dumped me when the pain of parental defiance became too much to bear. (He was 21 at the time.) That was my rough introduction to the "Jew dating non-Jew=genocide" school of thought.

It was very sad to be young, in love, and dumped because your behavior was, in essence, being equivocated to that of a Nazi.

[coffeenap]

11. Ok, and I am a Jew who married a Presbyterian and it took 10

years for them to look at me like I was an equal--you know, "not our kind of people". I think it works like this across lots of cultures. I know someone who is still not accepted because she isn't Greek. I know someone else who isn't accepted because he IS Greek. Ethnocentrism exists all over the world--wars are being fought over it, deaths occur over it.

None of this is to say there is anything wrong with the book. That is another issue.

[lvx35]

8. Yeah, didn't you hear about all those Nazi dating camps? n/t

[Skittles]

9. lol........Boy Vey

come on, that's witty :D

[no_hypocrisy]

12. Oy yoy yoy! Protectionism regarding single Jewish men.

A plot to destroy (potential) Jewish families. Anti-semitism in disguise.

Whatever.

[teknomanzer]

14. So whats the deal...

Jewish women can't date non-jewish men? or is this just veiled racism. It raises the question is being Jewish cultural or a matter of ethnicity?

[CJCRANE]

17. Jewish lineage is traced through the mother

therefore I guess it's important for Jews who take their religion seriously.

(Conversely, in Islam, for instance, heritage is generally traced through the father, so the race/religion of the mother is less important, in theory).

[teknomanzer]

18. Right, thats what I'ver heard...

So I guess not many Gentile men are looking to convert. Maybe its the - chop - chop that is the downer. But it would definitly show just how commited one is to such a conversion, eh?

[burythehatchet]

15. I'm verklempt!!

[Burma Jones]

16. As a WASP married to a Jewish woman, I sympathise

I have actually been told that I am worse than Hitler because I am destroying the Jewish people by inter-marrying.

I have been asked whether "your people" are disturbed by my marrying a Jew. And I responded, only the Ku Klux Klan seems to mind. This is a controversial answer, but I believe valid.

We're all potential victims of wacko, right-wing fundies, be they Christian, Jewish, Hindu or Muslim. I am fed up and sick of people putting some sort of narrow tribal mentality ahead of their membership in the HUMAN race.

A funny aside or two, when my wife's Great Aunt asked whether my family minded that I was marrying a Jew, I told her that my brother married a Catholic - and that's worse. When people ask in what religion we're raising the kids, I respond - the only one true religion, American Materialism. The Rabbi that married us asked whether I was comfortable raising the kids Jewish, I responded - It was good enough for Jesus, who am I to argue.