re: #252 buzzsawmonkey

A little of both.

People of my grandparents’ generation fled a European antisemitism which, predating the Nazis, was almost entirely of Christian origin. They, and their children, faced antisemitism here too—in school admissions, restrictive covenants on land and exclusion from hotels, denied job opportunities—which was usually less ferocious overall than what they had left in Europe, but which still left scars. Having to deal with being beaten up for being a Jew at public school, or being told that “we don’t hire Jews” is not as bad as having to fear Cossack raids and pogroms, but it’s still hell to live through.

Exactly. That is what caused my grandfather to reject his Jewish roots which my ancestors previous to him, at great risk to their very lives, had cultivated since 1492. He kidnapped my father from my grandmother and raised him a Christian. Now I feel cheated of my heritage, and know, notwithstanding my identification with Jewish culture, that I will never fit into either Jewish or Gentile society. My grandfather’s cowardly actions are far worse than his contemporaries cleaving to the left wing to avoid the antisemitism that came from the right.