erratio

Thousands of years ago, or so the legend goes, when the Persian empire was at its height, there was a king called Achashverosh. Now Achashverosh had a wicked advisor Haman, who was most wroth because the Jews wouldn't prostrate themselves before him when he rode by on his horse. So he went forth before the king and said "There is a nation scattered and separated among the nations throughout your empire. Their laws are different than everyone else's, they do not obey the king's laws, and it does not pay for the king to tolerate their existence." At this, the king gave Haman his signet ring so that these people could be killed.
But all was not lost. King Achashverosh was looking for a new queen, so the wise Jew Mordechai sent his beautiful niece Esther to win the king's heart. She did so easily, and then successfully pleaded with the king to have Haman and his 10 sons killed and to revoke the execution. And so the Jews of the Persian empire were saved.

This is the story of Purim which the Jews celebrate every year*. Now, fast forward to today. The Jews accept the sovereignity of the country they live in. They by and large accept the laws of the country as their own except for the die-hard religious who still insist on taking things to the Beth Din (Jewish religious court of law). But they still refuse to mix with the other nations who surround them.

I live in the eastern suburbs in the heart of what i might call Jewville when the mood is upon me. I was sent to a Jewish day school for my 13 years of schooling so that i would know about my religion. These things had the side effect that there are whole groups of people who i never really met until i started uni, for example Indians, Asians of all types, and Muslims. Now, because i never got on particularly well with my peers at school, i made new friends at uni, most of them non-Jewish. In fact, my three best friends are all Asian, a fact which never fails to scandalise my grandmother who is sure that everyone is out to get us (hey at least she has some justification. She went through WW2 in Poland where everyone really was out to get us). But every onw and then I see people i recognise from school, and by and large they haven't made any new non-Jewish friends or any new friends at all. The self-imposed ghetto lives on.

My theory goes as follows: It is exactly that behaviour which encourages anti-Semitism to flourish. Since most Jews keep to their own kind so much (with the occasional black sheep like me who proves the exception), most non-Jews will never have any significant contact with Jews and so will be free to form whatever prejudices they like. And every time the Jews either consciously or not shun the others they reinforce their reputation as rich snobs.

And in the legend of Purim it is very clear on the fact that Achashversoh agrees to Haman killing all the Jews for exactly that kind of behaviour. Why bother keeping a whole people in your kingdom who refuse to participate in it and instead insist on having their own society?

I have written this rant about Jews because as someone who was raised in a Jewish environment it is what i know best. But i see similar behaviour from other quarters as well. The Asians without much command of english who make no effort to talk to anyone except other people from their home country. The Indians who have their own private ghetto similar to the Jewish one.

It's a sad fact of history: if you keep insisting on drawing a line between yourself and the rest of the world you shouldn't be too surprised if the world doesn't view you too well for it. The more you trumpet your pride in your race/lifestyle the more other people will view you as exclusive or elitist.


* This is the extremely paraphrased version of the story. The real reading of the scroll of Esther usually takes around an hour, and has some colourful customs associated with it such as making noise to stamp out Haman's name whenever it is mentioned, and saying the names of all his 10 sons in one breath when they are introduced to be hanged from the gallows.**

** Purim is also one of the very few festivals known to man that actually encourage getting drunk. It is written by the sages that we should get drunk until we can't distinguish between the phrases "cursed is Haman" and "blessed is Mordechai"