UNDERCOVER JEW

Yesterday evening, famous Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdaiev was a guest on The Daily Show ('Der Taglishes Shau', for those of you with Boropark cable), speaking with Jonathan Stewart (Reb Yonosson Stebartabam, f.t.o.y.w.b.c.).

When explaining the toast 'le chayim' to Borat, reb Yonosson let slip that he was Jewish.

Borat recoiled, and accused him of having had plastic surgery, as his horns were no longer visible ("and also, please to keep your claws where I can see them...").


Which brings two things to mind.

The first one being the old idea that Jews have horns.


Where did that idea come from?


It came from a misinterpretation of the verse in which Moses comes down from the mountain after forty days face to face with the divine.

Seifer Shemos (Exodus), Parshas Ki Sisa, seventh Aliyah, psookim (verses) 34:29 - 30 "Vayehi beredet Moshe mehar Sinai ushenei luchot ha edut be yad Moshe beridto min ha har u Moshe lo-yada ki karan or panav bedabro ito" (And so it happened that when Moses descended from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of testimony in his hand, that when he came down from the mountain he did not know that horns of light came from his face when He spoke with him), "Vayar Aharon ve chol Benei Yisrael et Moshe vehine karan or panav vayiru migeshet elav" (And when Aaron and all the Children of Israel saw Moses, lo, horns of light came forth from his mien, and they were scared to come near him).


'Karan Or', idiomatically, meant rays of light. But the word karan specifically refers to horns.

For centuries, analogous to Alexander the Great (Sikander Dhulkarnain - Alexander with the two horns), who was represented with the ram's horns of an Egyptian divinity springing from his forehead on coins struck during his reign in Egypt, Moses was portrayed as having actual horns.

[A very Egyptian image, by the way, but it is doubtful most people realized that.]


Now, to the typical mediaeval European, Moses was the quintessential Jew, and one of the few shown in a multitude of representations. If Moses had horns, then horns should mark other Jews as well. Logic and actual observation would contradict this, of course, but most ignorant Christian peasants never came in contact with Jews, and happily believed that the Jew with whom they did exceptionally come in contact must have trimmed or cut his horns to pass unnoticed among them. The foolish-looking hats that Jews were forced to wear as identifying marks by the authorities in many provinces were re-interpreted by the ignorant as being a Jewish choice, meant to hide the stumps.

[These hats were often bright yellow, with tall floppy peaks, and broad drooping rims - very distinctive. The kind of hat you would see in a Dr. Seuss book.]


This brings us to the second thing brought up by Borat's comment about the horns, namely the idea that Jews hide their true identity and attempt to blend in, or pass unnoticed among the rest of us. Paired with this is the idea that if they do so, they do it because of some plot or evil intent.

Jews are actually one of the very few minorities whose presence does not register - blacks, Asian-Americans, Latinos, all stand out by their difference. But Jews come in every hue and stripe, and often look no different than the dominant ethnic group. The average well-bred bigot will happily tell black jokes when no black people are present, or say something incredibly stupid about Asians behind their backs, but has a 'problem' as regards the unseen and unknownable Jew.

Often the average well-bred bigot will either assume that there are no Jews present ('cause everyone here looks like us'), or that there might be Jews within hearing distance. If the first assumption dominates, our average well-bred bigot may tell a Jew-joke. And thus innocently create a problem.
Objecting to the joke, whether one is Jewish or not, marks one as a Jew, and specifically as an undercover Jew who hides his identity to trap poor unsuspecting Gentiles.
Not objecting means that one is a person with whom one can share this delicious forbidden fun (along with cracks about blacks, Catholics, Asians, Mexicans, Polish, Irish..... Etcera).

[And this reminds me of an old joke; an orthodox rabbi, an ignorant bigot, and an albino black man were walking down the street together..... ]


It is ironic that almost all of the old-fashioned western world bigotry and misinformation about Jews has found fertile soil in the Middle-East, where most ignorant Islamic peasants never come in contact with Jews, and will happily believe that the Jew they might exceptionally come in contact with has trimmed or cut his horns to pass unnoticed among them.

[Oh Abdullah, my friend, perhaps the Mossaaaaaaad has a horn-trimming department?]


Borat is a perfect send-up of the anti-Semitic praeconceptiva of the Muslim world. Muslims have been spoon-fed nonsense about the Jews for so long, that they'll believe anything, including second hand bigotry that isn't even taken seriously by most people in Europe any more. Borat represents the Islamic everyman - credulous, good natured, and often so staggeringly mis-informed that you don't even know where to begin correcting him.


But Borat is also the perfect undercover Jew, hiding his identity to trap poor unsuspecting bigots.

And as such, he also speaks poignantly to a particular demographic.

In the audience watching this movie there will probably be people of hues, who wistfully will dream of doing the same - venturing unnoticed and unremarked among the people of pallor.


Which is something that us melanin-deprived folks can only dream of dreaming about.