Dan ,
That's the problem: the Gentile members don't feel respected. There are some members who go out of their way to say insensitive things to the Christian people on this forum. I am not talking about people who state theological differences respectfully as say Chaim does. I dont think any of the Christian members feel offended by that. I think they are rightfully offended by some who seem to go out of their way to be 'in your face' kind of hostile.
I agree with this, and it is one of the things that bothers me here, even though I am a Jew. I am currently dealing with an offline friend who is also like this; we met during my JDL days in the 1970s, and he honestly has no reason to hate Christians, yet he does. In fact it was a bornagain Christian who once saved his life and helped him out financially when he was close to being homeless. And this guy never once tried to convert him. Yet he has this knee-jerk reaction to Christians.
As I said before, my mother (obm) converted to Torah Judaism in 1944, a few years before she met and married my father, who was a born Jew. Born Jews have no idea how hard it is for converts, esp. anyone who converted during WW2, when Jews were being murdered in Europe. For many years, until the 1980s, my mom was the only convert she knew, and born Jews (including my Jewish grandparents, sad to say) made life very difficult for her because they felt intimidated by a convert who knew more about Torah than they did.
Yet my mother was also an Italian-American. Not until I was an adult did I appreciate how many things she did to keep me Jewish. Even when she took me to Italian-American events, she made sure they were secular ones, like the Columbus Day parades. It was not until I was an adult and went to Italian events on my own that I realized how Catholic many of them were (saints' processions, etc). Mom made sure I never saw any of that, I realize that now.
When I was 10 I was beaten up and had my hair cut off by Irish Catholic girls in the neighborhood who called me 'christ killer'. It was Mrs. Oteri (obm) who ran out of the Italian bakery nearby, chased them off with a rolling pin and took me into the bakery to clean the blood off my face, offer me Italian cookies (sorry, can't, they're not kosher, but thanks anyway), and took me to my parents.
NOT ONCE have I ever personally encountered any antisemitism from any Italian-Americans. I have from Irish-Americans and blacks, but honestly not from anyone else. And where I grew up it was mostly Italian, Jewish, some Polish, some Irish, and some blacks. The Irish would come into the Italian and Jewish area to beat us up, so Italians and Jews stuck together; much of the time they even intermarried. For some reason, Italian-Americans (and even many Italians) don't understand antisemitism. Mussolini, though he sided with Hitler because he thought he was going to win, used to ridicule Hitler behind his back; he did not understand Hitler's obsession with Jews.
Decades later, his granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini, who became an actress, would play a nun who sheltered Jews in the film THE ASSISI UNDERGROUND, a movie based on the book by Italian Jew Alexander Ramati (1978).
She also went to Israel, and toured Yad Vashem. When she emerged, she commented on the Israeli soldiers standing guard nearby. She said it was so tragic that the Jews, who have spent their entire existence fighting for their lives, still had to continue to do in their own land.
Maybe if I had encountered antisemitism from many Italians I would not feel this way. But I am BOTH Jewish and Italian, and I am proud of BOTH. Many have tried to make me 'choose sides' but I cannot because I am both, I always have been and always will be.
Interestingly, it has only been Jews who have tried to pressure me to "choose sides" (is this a war?) Italian-Americans never have, the ones I have spoken to think "its cool" to be both Italian and Jewish. Go figure.
Topic: Italians and Jews: My two cents (Read 21562 times)