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--Adapted from the Moment article by Niv Elis
Few films have packed as hearty a punch for American political culture as Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 epic The Ten Commandments. With the Cold War heating up and a fervent anti-communist sentiment sweeping the nation, the film burst onto the scene at a time when religion—especially Christianity—became a central rallying point, pitting America’s “divine purpose” against “godless Communists.” Enter DeMille, a director with a penchant for the spectacular, who released the nearly four-hour remake of his 1923 silent film of the same name, this one starring Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Pharoah Ramses II.
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--Adapted from the Moment Magazine article by David Zax
World domination, war-mongering and brainwashing through psychoanalysis; it’s all in a day’s work for Jews, who have long been the subjects of conspiracy theories and vicious rumors. Here are eight of the most persistent and pernicious.
Power-Hungry World-Dominators
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, one of the most notorious literary forgeries, is a how-to manual of world domination, passed off as if it had been written by a secret society of malicious, scheming Jews. First published in Russia in the early 1900s, it is the quintessential text of anti-Semitic literature: “At the present day we are, as an international force, invincible,” reads part of Protocol No. 3.
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-Adapted from the original Moment article by Ori Nir
You might do it in a dimly lit bar, or in the harsh fluorescent light of your office’s break room. It happens in coffee shops and cafes, over turkey at Thanksgiving and lox and bagels at Yom Kippur break fast. Wherever it occurs, schmoozing, or the art of small talk, has embedded itself into the American Jewish way of life.
It’s not so everywhere; one of the things that Israelis have always disliked most about Americans is the impression that when Americans interact with you, they always have a hidden agenda, an interest; not a genuine interest in you, but in something they can get from you.
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—Adapted from an article by Helen Grove
No longer reserved for Yiddish-speaking grandparents from the Old Country, l’chaim—to life!—has become synonymous with “cheers.” It’s an all-purpose toast for any occasion or situation, crossing barriers of class, culture and age and can be heard over clanking beer mugs across the nation.
“Fill up my cup (Drink), Mazel Tov (L’chaim),” sang the Black Eyed Peas in the 2009 hit, “I’ve Got A Feeling,” a feel-good song about little more than having a good time. “L’chaim” the two Wedding Crashers played by Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn shout to a bride and groom they have just met in the 2005 film, complete with the guttural clearing-of-the-throat sound unique to Semitic languages.
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—Adapted from the Moment article by Mandy Katz
As the country digs itself out from one of its biggest snowstorms, Moment digs in to discover the comfort food people turn to when the going gets rough: Chicken Soup.
Although Egyptians originally developed chicken husbandry, the animal was largely absent from the Middle East until the Romans reintroduced it centuries later. Poultry made sense for both desert and urban cultivation, given the birds’ catholic food tastes, their minimal need for grazing and living space and their tolerance of hot weather. In Rome’s colonies, “Jews ate them more than gentiles, who also ate pork in large quantities,” says Ken Ovitz, culinary historian and author of The Israel Seder Haggadah.
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—Adapted from a Moment Magazine article by Rebecca Frankel.
Jewish. American. Princess. Benign as these words may be apart, together they form an unpleasant image. The American Heritage Dictionary calls JAP “offensive slang” and defines it as, “a Jewish American girl or woman regarded as being pampered or overindulged.” Urban Dictionary, an online site with reader-created definitions, is less delicate: A JAP is a “large-breasted, outwardly attractive, internally spoiled, greedy, complicated, self-righteous and obnoxiously difficult and overbearing Jewish female.”
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— Compiled by Sala Levin
Kugel. Brisket. Gefilte fish. These are the familiar foods that are thought to make up Jewish culinary history. But one common and much-loved food has a longstanding but little-known connection to the Jewish community. Behold—chocolate, the forgotten Jewish food.
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— Adapted from an Article by Boris Weintraub
Schmuck! Schlep! Schmooze! Yiddish terms abound in American usage, but none as loaded as the Yiddish term for non-Jews: Goy. While often used with self-aware cheekiness, the word carries historically derisive connotations, apparent in traditional (and often amusing) Jewish idioms.
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—Compiled by Sala Levin
When then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton was spotted toting the novel Devil in a Blue Dress on the campaign trail in 1992, he catapulted author Walter Mosley out of obscurity and into the spotlight. Clinton talked up the book, the first of the Easy Rawlins series of detective novels, to a Wall Street Journal reporter saying that it was important “for all Americans” to see “the way it was from a black person’s view…in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s.” Mosley soon became a literary star, noted for his portrayal of black protagonists in largely white worlds.
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—By Amelia Cohen-Levy
We’re all familiar with that feeling, best summed up by loveable Jewish South Park character Kyle Broflovski: “I’m a Jew. A lonely Jew. On Christmas.” The lonely holiday season starts earlier every year. First, the local Target clears out the Halloween costumes and dusts the shelves. Then come the decorations: Red and green everything, from placemats to socks to Hershey®’s Kisses®. Then there’s someone ringing an annoying little bell outside of every supermarket. All this is before the carols are pumped into every radio station and Muzak system. Before you know it, you’re feeling excluded–Bah Humbug!–and craving Chinese food, left to wonder if there are any good movies playing.
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—Compiled by Niv Elis
“Love me like the Torah says you should.” OK, that expression might not be commonly uttered among adoring lovers, but Jewish tradition actually has some interesting things to say about love. To get a better sense of Jewish perspectives on the subject, we asked a diverse group of rabbis, all of varying denominations, backgrounds and religious philosophies, for their thoughts.
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From lighting the Hanukkia to eating fried latkes and doughnuts, pretty much every Jewish school kid knows that Hanukkah celebrates the Maccabees’ improbable military triumph over the Greeks and the miraculous oil that burned in the Menorah for eight days instead of just one. But few children—or even adults—know that several scholars believe that some of the most beloved Hanukkah traditions are actually rooted in pagan and seasonal traditions.
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Due to either a self-serving bias or a buy-in to modern Jewish stereotypes, we claim the likes of Stephen Colbert and Joy Behar as co-religionists. In the same vein, we are often surprised when we find out that famous people who lack that Jewish je ne sais quoi are, in fact, members of the tribe. These are the top celebrities that, believe it or not, are actually Jewish.
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By Niv Elis and Nonna Gorilovskaya
Maybe because it fuels some tribal connection, maybe because it makes us proud by association, or maybe because it’s just fun to gossip, Jews love talking about whom else is Jewish. Claiming an accomplished celebrity, humanitarian, or entrepreneur as one of our own is as stereotypical a Jewish pastime as eating bagels or nagging. But even the most adept purveyors of Jewish tidbits can get things wrong on occasion. Below are eight celebrities who are regularly misidentified as Jews.
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By Sala Levin
Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt. Stalin and his string of Jewish mistresses. Novelist Henry Miller and the tragic June née Smerdt. Behind every good anti-Semite seems to lay a Jewish lover. As strange as it sounds, some of history’s most famous Jew haters have also had their pulses quickened and their knees weakened by a Jewish paramour.
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Why America’s “Chief Rabbi” Dropped His Last Name
Compiled by Niv Elis
If you were to strike up a conversation with “JSLeibowitz,” age 47, while cruising through JDate, you might not realize you were talking to one of the most famous Jewish men in the country. Of course, the chances that Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz would be looking for a date are slim, because he’s happily married with two kids, but that’s beside the point. The real question is, why did the man better known as Jon Stewart, who commands some of the highest ratings on television and drew 215,000 people to last weekend’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” in Washington, DC, lose the Leibowitz?
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