Ask A Genius 124 – The Never Again Jew
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/03/21
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Rick Rosner: There has been a phenomenon since WWII of the tough Jew. The “Never Again Jew,” there is a feeling post-Holocaust that—there’s a little bit of blaming the victim or sometimes a lot of blaming the victim about the Jews and the Holocaust, saying, “They got easily played. That they were complacent because they were such a part of German society that they didn’t adequately feel the threat. That they weren’t tough.”
“That they weren’t skeptical to the years or provocation with aggression of their own. They just stood by and let themselves get swept into the camps.” Which isn’t a fair characterization, but yea! People could’ve done better. The Germans were sophisticated about tricking people. It obviously wasn’t a simple situation. A lot of people saw what was going on and got out. A lot of people were straight out lied to or coerced.
A lot of people who were in Holland. They thought they were safe. Their government was a Nazi puppet government. They thought they were going to be left alone for the duration of the war. That the Jews were going to be left alone. At some points, the Nazis decided, “Hey, let’s kill the Jews in Holland too.” The Nazis were crazy. In that, long after the war was lost, they kept working and working to kill more and more Jews.
I think most of the Jews killed in the Holocaust were killed in the 2 to 3 years after it was clear Germany was not going to win the war. You could make a case for killing Jews as part of a theft ring, as part of a crime syndicate, which the Nazis were, and to steal their wealth to propel this war machine. But after 1942, after Hitler got his ass kicked in Russia and it was clear that the Nazis were not going to win, they kept killing more and more Jews for no good strategic reason.
So a lot of or a certain percentage of Jews were sucked into the Holocaust because they couldn’t believe the Nazis could be as crazily genocidal as they were. So after the Holocaust, you have the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, which is founded in belligerence and like, “Fuck you! We are not going to be screwed over again.” And now, you have the stereotype, which is based on fact, of the tough, aggressive Israeli Jew – who is not wimpy at all and knows how to use a machine gun.
If you hire an, for some reason many of the moving companies in New York City, is Israeli, and those guys are fuckers, they will do the job the way they want to do…and they don’t take any shit. [Laughing]
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: [Laughing].
RR: They’re all pretty tough guys, and tough women. Like, what’s that Sandler movie? You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.
SDJ: Okay.
RR: And it is a comedy about a super tough Israeli Jew, and conversely a bunch of pretty tough Arabs. Everyone has been toughened by all of the crap since, not just WWII, but for hundreds of years before that. I caught a little of that bug. I didn’t entirely catch it from the Nazis. Some of the wanting to be tough came from taking a bunch of shit in junior high from a bunch of kids and some gym teachers, and one asshole gym teacher in particular.
It helped give me that “fuck you” attitude and help me want to start lifting weights, and eventually become a bouncer. I’ve got that same ridiculous Rambo feeling that if stuff went down in a variety of situations I could wade into it and do okay. I at least have the excuse that in 1928 I won a Rambo lookalike contest. So there’s that.
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