We Jews are a funny breed. We love to brag
about every Jewish actor. Sometimes we even pretend an actor is Jewish
just because we like him enough that we think he deserves to be on our
team. We brag about Jewish authors, Jewish politicians, Jewish
directors. Every time someone mentions any movie or book or piece of
art, we inevitably say something like, “Did you know that he was
Jewish?” That’s just how we roll.
We’re a driven group, and not just in regards
to the art world. We have, for example, AIPAC, which was essentially
constructed just to drive agenda in Washington DC. And it succeeds
admirably. And we brag about it. Again, it’s just what we do.
But the funny part is when any anti-Semite or
anti-Israel person starts to spout stuff like, “The Jews control the
media!” and “The Jews control Washington!”
Suddenly we’re up in arms. We create huge
campaigns to take these people down. We do what we can to put them out
of work. We publish articles. We’ve created entire organizations
that exist just to tell everyone that the Jews don’t control nothin’.
No, we don’t control the media, we don’t have any more sway in DC than
anyone else. No, no, no, we swear: We’re just like everybody else!
Does anyone else (who’s not a bigot) see the irony of this?
Let’s be honest with ourselves, here, fellow Jews. We do
control the media. We’ve got so many dudes up in the executive offices
in all the big movie production companies it’s almost obscene. Just
about every movie or TV show, whether it be “Tropic Thunder” or “Curb
Your Enthusiasm,” is rife with actors, directors, and writers who are
Jewish. Did you know that all eight major film studios are run by Jews?
Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good. (photo credit: CC BY-SA Angela George/Wikimedia Commons)
But that’s not all. We also control the ads that go on those TV shows.
And let’s not forget AIPAC, every
anti-Semite’s favorite punching bag. We’re talking an organization
that’s practically the equivalent of the Elders of Zion. I’ll never
forget when I was involved in Israeli advocacy in college and being at
one of the many AIPAC conventions. A man literally stood in front of us
and told us that their whole goal was to only work with top-50 school
graduate students because they would eventually be the people making
changes in the government. Here I am, an idealistic little kid that goes
to a bottom 50 school (ASU) who wants to do some grassroots advocacy,
and these guys are literally talking about infiltrating the government.
Intense.
Now, I know what everyone will say. That everyone
tries to lobby. Every minority group and every majority group. That
every group has some successful actors and directors. But that’s a far
call from saying that we run Hollywood and Madison Avenue. That
the Mel Gibsons of the world are right in saying we’re deliberately
using our power to take over the world. That we’ve got some crazy
conspiracy going down.
Okay. Fine. So some of that is kooky talk.
But let’s look at it a bit deeper.
Maybe it’s true: everyone lobbies. Maybe it’s
true there are actors of every ethnicity out there. But come on. We’re
the ones who are bragging about this stuff all the time. Can’t we admit
that we’re incredibly successful? Can’t we say it to the world?
I’ll give my theory for why Jews don’t want to talk about their control of the media.
First of all, as much as Jews like to admit
that so many of them are successful, and that so many of them have
accomplished so much, they hate to admit that it has to do with they’re
being Jewish. Maybe they’ll admit that it has something to do with the
Jewish experience. But how many Jews will admit that there is something inherently a part of every single one of them that helps them to accomplish amazing things?
The ADL chairman, Abe Foxman, was interviewed in a great article
about the subject and he said that he “would prefer people say that
many executives in the industry ‘happen to be Jewish.’” This just about
sums up the party line.
The truth is, the anti-Semites got it right.
We Jews have something planted in each one of us that makes us
completely different from every group in the world. We’re talking about a
group of people that just got put in death camps, endured pogroms,
their whole families decimated. And then they came to America, the one
place that ever really let them have as much power as they wanted, and
suddenly they’re taking over. Please don’t tell me that any other group
in the world has ever done that. Only the Jews. And we’ve done it
before. That’s why the Jews were enslaved in Egypt. We were too
successful. Go look at the Torah — it’s right there. And we did it in
Germany too.
This ability to succeed, this inner drive,
comes not from the years of education or any other sort of conditional
factors, but because of the inner spark within each Jew.
Now, the reason groups like the ADL and AIPAC
hate admitting this is because, first of all, they are secular
organizations. Their whole agenda is to prove that every Jew is the same
as every other person in the world. I cannot imagine a more outlandish
agenda. No, we’re different. We’re special.
And
clearly, that whole thing about big Jewish noses was totally blown out
of proportion. (illustrative photo: Abir Sultan/Flash 90)
Of course, people hate when anyone says this. They assume that if you’re saying that Jews are special, it somehow implies that they’re better.
To be honest, I’m not really sure what the
word “better” even means. What I do know is that being special simply
means a person has a responsibility to do good.
I think that’s the real reason most Jews are
so afraid to admit that there’s something inherently powerful and good
about them. Not because they’re afraid of being special. But because
they’re afraid of being responsible. It means that they’re suddenly
culpable when they create dirty TV shows that sully the spiritual
atmosphere of the world. It means that things can’t just be created for the sake of amusement or fun or even “art.”
Suddenly, we can’t screw up the world.
The interesting thing is that Jews have done
so much for the world in so many other ways. They’ve moved forward civil
rights; they’ve helped save lives in Darfur, Haiti and just about
everywhere else.
But that’s not enough. Fixing the world physically is only half the battle.
Our larger battle, the harder battle, is
elevating the world spiritually. And this is what the people that fight
with every inch of their soul to prove that Jews are just the same as
everyone else are afraid of. It means that we can no longer just
“express ourselves.” We’ll have to start thinking about the things we
create and the way we act. It means we’ll have to start working
together. It means we’ll have to hold one other, and ourselves, to a
higher standard.
The time has come, though. We no longer have
to change our names. We no longer have to blend in like chameleons. We
own a whole freaking country.
Instead, we can be proud of who we are, and simultaneously aware of our huge responsibility — and opportunity.
THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
