I think progress will be made in Spain on the subject of race relations. There will be more immigration and therefore more possibilities for interaction between Spaniards and Blacks, Latinos, Chinos, and Polacos, etc. However, there is one (small) group that will have to wait for their day, one road that will be a long one in Spain…. The road that ends with the Spanish and Europeans giving a break to the Jews.
Talking crap about the Jews is the last protected area of inappropriate free-speech in Europe. The Jews are open game. No one will disagree with the common assumptions – age old wrong assumptions – about the Jews. I have been in conversations with many a Spaniard when the usual Jewish conspiracy theories are raised. Let’s see… The Jews somehow control major aspects of the U.S. Government, huh? The United States is at least 40% Jewish – actual percentage: 2%. Secret Jewish organizations run the media … et al. One guy, a very educated Spanish guy, once told me that the Jews upset the natural balance in Spain because they work too hard!
Bottom line, to them the Jews = Conservative politics, conspiracy theories, arms industry, evil police state, evil U.S. empire in league with Israel, oh and of course, only interested in money.
To me the Jews = Liberal politics, hard work, value of family and education, one of the very few democracies in the Middle East, tiny place surrounded by 22 other countries that want to kill them, they couldn’t care less about converting you and, who doesn’t like money?
It seems to me that the people in Europe who have a knee-jerk reaction to dislike the Jews - haven’t really stepped back to analyze the situation. Are Jewish people really so different than the typical Western European? Would it really be so bad to have Jews living next door to you? Sure they may have a real Mercedes while you have a Smart car, but I’m betting that’s because they studied, and then worked, their kosher asses off to get it.
They sound like good neighbors to me.
7 comments:
I have noticed this here, as well.
I grew up in the U.S., and I have always wondered, since moving here to Spain, how many people back home realize just how different one Spaniard is form another Spaniard, because I didn't until I started reading about Spain, and actually came here.
If Spaniards think we are all alike, too... Who can blame them?
It is scary. And like you said, Carl, many Spaniards have a kneejerk response about Jewish people that they have never stopped to think about or question. But also, like you said, it's going to be a loooooooooooooong, looooooooong time before those views change because to change there would need to be social contact and there isn't much of any, considering how tiny the Jewish population is in Spain.
Just to be clear, when I said "it is scary" I was referring to European/Spanish anti-semitism.
The sad truth behind anti-Semitism in Spain is that so many Spaniards have Jewish blood. They are trying to deny their roots. An old story.
Ferdinand and Isabella kicked all the Jews out of Spain in 1492. Columbus wrote about the traffic jam in the harbor as he was trying to leave. A lot of them went to the Netherlands, which welcomed them.
The balance of power shifted from Spain to Holland for many reasons, but this was one of them. Holland was becoming a mercantile empire. Jews knew international trade and accounting. Spain was a repressive absolute monarchy, Holland was intellectual and middle class, and Jews fit in.
Actually you can trace Jewish wanderings all over the globe and any country that has welcomed us and had a culture which was complementary to ours, has been prosperous. Not because we bring it, but because the cultural conditions which welcome hardworking intellectual business-savvy entrepreneurial people, are the same conditions which produce human freedom and prosperity.
Israel has more high tech startups than any other country in the world after the US. It's the global center of medical technology research.
¿Does any one know how many thousands of years does this one go back?
"Secret Jewish organizations run the" ....... fill in the blank ...This has got to be one of the most misguided conspiracy theories in the history of conspiracy theories ..
Secret Jewish organizations gets you 1,800,000 hits
British thought the Ottoman empire was secretly run by Secret Jewish organizations .....
Is there a secret Jewish group controlling the United States?
Secret Jewish conspiracy gets only 1,340,000 hits
Henry Ford Invents a Jewish Conspiracy ..In 1927, Ford’s anti-Semitism brought him, for one of the few times in his life, to humiliation. .......
World wide anti-Semitism , racism or simple misguided fear of the other plays scapegoat for a host of issues .
How many thousands of jews fled europe for the Netherlands Ottoman Empire , Asia or all points in the Americas & finally Israel to escape this sort of quiet prejustice & overt repression
I hope there is truth to the state that all countries that once welcomed jews became properous.
the philippines was one of the very few countries that welcomed the jews during the 2nd world war. I hope the philippines become prosperous too.
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