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At the risk of being called an ‘anti semite’ can someone please explain what it’s all about? Are the Jews a special case? Can’t I like or dislike anyone I choose? I’m totally confused. I don’t like eggs, I don’t like Swedish cooking, I’m not all that fond of the French and there’s some people down our lane I wouldn’t share the same room with. What a strange world this is!

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I know what you mean Phil,,i try not to dislike groups of people or people of a different nationality,,

I've found over the years pre conceived thoughts of them have changed dramatically when meeting them,

Regarding anti semitism,, don't see what they are guilty of,,they were persecuted in Biblical times and suffered the horrors of "the holocaust "we even turned against them when they wanted their Historic homeland back,, sorry waffled on a bit there,,but with a name like Benjamin how could i not like the Jews,,  

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The only problem I came across was once when my accountancy firm were preparing the accounts of the Nottingham Hebrew Congregation on Shakespeare St. way back in the 60's. Our comp.op. girl had been shopping at lunchtime and came back with a Pork Farm's carrier bag. It was spotted and she was asked to leave it outside on the step for the afternoon! :biggrin:

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As with most religions or nationalities there are good and bad mixed in. I try to take people as I find them and form my own opinion. All in all I must say I prefer my boys to a lot of people, probably a bit anti-social but as long as I have a few close friends and my close relatives that is all I need. 

I don’t really understand how you can tar a whole religion or race with one brush everyone is different thankfully.

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I don't see that it is wrong at all to dislike an individual, whatever their ethnicity, religion etc.  It becomes wrong in my view when someone applies their hatred to, or discriminates against, all members of that ethnic group or religion. That is prejudice.. pure and simple.

 

As for anti-semitism. (AS) Quite what is going on within the Labour Party defeats me.  I don't for one minute believe that there is 'rampant' anti semitism at play. I'd imagine that several factors are contributing.

 

1.  The Press, which is mostly anti-Labour.. is having a 'field day'.  They will grab and run with any opportunity to smear Labour and Corbyn.

 

2. Many people have difficulty separating opposition to Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, from true AS.  I recall seeing members of the Manchester Jewish Community protesting that someone's comments about the Palestine situation were AS.  They just weren't, but if people choose to take offence and to then 'weaponise' that offence.. what do you do?  I object to the role of Saudi Arabia in the Yemen conflict.  Does that make me anti Islamic?

 

3. There is considerable opposition to Corbyn within Labour.  Some, maybe jews, maybe not, will use this issue as another weapon in their arsenal.

 

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6 minutes ago, philmayfield said:

The only problem I came across was once when my accountancy firm were preparing the accounts of the Nottingham Hebrew Congregation on Shakespeare St. way back in the 60's. Our comp.op. girl had been shopping at lunchtime and came back with a Pork Farm's carrier bag. It was spotted and she was asked to leave it outside on the step for the afternoon! :biggrin:

 

When I first moved to Liverpool in the early 70s, I got a bus to work which took me past a famous junction known as 'Childwall Five Ways'.  This is in the middle of a large centre of the Jewish population in Liverpool. There are Jewish cemetaries and a Jewish secondary school nearby.  Two butchers shops were next to each other.. wrapped around a curve as it were.  One was a 'kosher' butchers.  The one just round the curve had a large poster in the window proclaiming 'We Sell Pork'

I never could work out whether this was a deliberate provocation, an 'in joke', between the two businesses, who appeared to otherwise happily co-exist', or merely a factual statement, but I'm sure there was plenty of offence there for those who wished to take it.

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A long while ago I worked for legal department that had a firm of solicitors who were Jewish. They had an office in our department.  They would open out envelopes that mail had come in and use them as notepaper, it became a running joke with both him and the rest of the staff. He did say “how do you think I got all my money”. In other ways he and his son, who was a partner in the firm as well, were very generous, his staff were treated very well. Anyone who had a birthday in the department was always treated to a large bunch of flowers and a cake. Nice people who would also help out with any legal problems which they did once for me. Couldn’t fault them.

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On the basis that 'the old ones are always the best ones' ............ There was a rabbi and a catholic priest travelling in the same compartment on a train. They got into conversation and the priest said to the rabbi 'Have you ever eaten pork?' The rabbi replied that he was rather partial to a bacon sandwich on occasions. The rabbi asked the priest 'Have you ever been with a woman?' 'Well yes', he replied, 'there have been a few times when I have given in to that temptation'. 'It's a lot better than a bacon sandwich isn't it?' said the rabbi.

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The problem as I see it comes back to the old issue of political correctness.  There is good and bad among all of us.  The problem arises when criticism of a member of an ethnic group is jumped on by the rest in an attempt to silence an individual eg.  You are an anti semite,  a racist, a homophobe etc.  The list is endless.

Bit off topic, but I came across and old telerecording from the fities of Billy Bunter, last night.  Corny by todays standards, but the pc police would have a hissy fit if that was shown today.

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I liked the show.  Of course Garnett was set up as a clown, to show up the bigotry of the sort of views and attitudes he possessed.  The fact that many didn't quite grasp that speaks volumes.

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I remember talking to a Jewish acquaintance some years ago just before Christmas. 'I don't suppose you celebrate Christmas do you?' 'Well no not really', he said, 'But we do have a tree and presents and turkey - just for the children you understand!'

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I used to know a bloke years ago and he would take a razor blade and split his matches then put em back in the box. He was just a tight arse though !!

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I once knew a bloke in Glasgow, a Polish Jew, who came over during the war. He adopted the Scottish way of life to the full, wore a kilt to the office and called himself Henry Gordon. Being both Scottish and Jewish he was the most tight arsed bloke I'd ever met.smile2

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4 hours ago, loppylugs said:

Bit off topic, but I came across and old telerecording from the fities of Billy Bunter, last night.  Corny by todays standards, but the pc police would have a hissy fit if that was shown today.

My father, born 1924, was a Magnet and Gem addict. He taught himself to read with these weekly papers for boys before he ever went to school. Even in old age, he was still collecting the annuals and doing an hilarious impersonation of Ram Jam Singh and the crew.  Political correctness was not in dad's vocabulary!

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For five years I worked for a line manager who was Jewish. I did not know he was Jewish until a colleague mentioned it after he had left. No problem. If someone is professional, polite and a nice person then that is what counts. My point of view is that their faith is their business not mine. We only need to know if there are associated  customs to be respected.

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  • 1 year later...

What’s the fuss about Anti Semitism? I’ve never come across it. We had many Jewish clients when I was an accountant and Jewish customers when I was in industry. We even did the audit of the Nottingham Hebrew Congregation on Shakespeare St. I knew Louis Levin, he was a client and his wife Sybil was a great charity organiser. Louis was quite orthodox. When he was chairman of Notts County his religion didn’t allow him to use transport on the sabbath so he would walk to and from Meadow Lane on a Saturday from his house on Adam’s Hill.  When we lived on Park Rd. in Woodthorpe in the 60’s our next door neighbour was a guy called Lou Berzin. He was a market trader and he introduced me to the various aspects and customs of Jewish life. It was very interesting. I know many Jewish jokes but they’re good humoured and many were told to me by Jews themselves.

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I think it is probably counted as anti-.Semitic when one shows any sympathy for the  Palestinians.... 

it’s a complicated area of the world and personally, I can see both sides of the argument.... not sure of a solution , though.  
I do know I’m not ‘anti’ any nation, only the violence and extremism within it.

It’s made more complicated by the fact that ‘Jewish’ refers to a religion and a nation

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Not sure I agree. I don't think I'm anti-semrtic when I say I feel for the Palestinians after Isreal builds on the occupied lands without a negotiated settlement -  any more than I'm anti-Palestine when I think it wrong to aim rockets at civilians.

 

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Where do you want to start? Unlike you I witnessed some as I grew up but nothing like the racism I saw and accepted as I grew up in Nottingham.

 

Anti-Semitism, known as history’s oldest hatred, is hostility or prejudice against Jewish people. it is suggested that the Holocaust of the 3rd Reich was history’s most extreme example of anti-Semitism but who knows what went on centuries ago?  Anti-Semitic attitudes date back to ancient times. In much of Europe throughout the Middle Ages, Jewish people were denied citizenship and forced to live in ghettos. Anti-Jewish riots called pogroms swept the Russian Empire during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and anti-Semitic incidents have increased in parts of Europe, the Middle East and North America in the last several years.

 

Some of the best jokes and best joke tellers come from this community.

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As far as I'm aware, I don't currently know anyone who is Jewish...but that's probably because I'm not that bothered about a person's beliefs (nor any other attitudes).

 

If I know a person I form an opinion about them; I like them or I don't like them or I'm not too bothered either way.  Which way they lean or face, on various subjects, doesn't really bother me.

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