Your post made sense to me. Still I think whoever made a formal complaint was over reacting a little bit (Unless there are more to the story!).
calling someone rich is not exactly a bad thing. Most people I know (Should be the same for you!) want to be rich and prosper. So if some of them made it, why they should act like it is a crime to state a fact.
In my Earlier post, I shared a link to a book by Prof, Amy Chua (Who is married to a Jewish scholar) and she actually was critical to Jews in post communist Russia for chasing "Irresponsible capitalism". She also criticised Chinese business people in Indonesia for the same reason.
So unless I am missing some critical details about the story, it is a bit silly to file a "Formal complaint" for calling someone rich.
When six million of your people are systematically murdered by the state and vile, wicked propoganda is spread about them (such as that you are all rich and controlling/destroying the country) and that those lies have helped cause thousands of deaths before that and many since as the nonsense continues into the next century...
I'll be sure to say it's silly when you get upset.
The dwarves of yore made mighty spells, While hammers fell like ringing bells In places deep, where dark things sleep, In hollow halls beneath the fells.
For ancient king and elvish lord There many a gloaming golden hoard They shaped and wrought, and light they caught To hide in gems on hilt of sword. - J.R.R. Tolkien
Your post made sense to me. Still I think whoever made a formal complaint was over reacting a little bit (Unless there are more to the story!).
calling someone rich is not exactly a bad thing. Most people I know (Should be the same for you!) want to be rich and prosper. So if some of them made it, why they should act like it is a crime to state a fact.
In my Earlier post, I shared a link to a book by Prof, Amy Chua (Who is married to a Jewish scholar) and she actually was critical to Jews in post communist Russia for chasing "Irresponsible capitalism". She also criticised Chinese business people in Indonesia for the same reason.
So unless I am missing some critical details about the story, it is a bit silly to file a "Formal complaint" for calling someone rich.
Being rich isn't a sin in Judaism, but refusing to share one's wealth is. Nor is believing and practising capitalism a sin, but refusing to help those in need is, and under halacha (Jewish Law) the government very much also has a responsibility, although that's obviously not binding on non-Jewish governments.
Your post made sense to me. Still I think whoever made a formal complaint was over reacting a little bit (Unless there are more to the story!).
calling someone rich is not exactly a bad thing. Most people I know (Should be the same for you!) want to be rich and prosper. So if some of them made it, why they should act like it is a crime to state a fact.
In my Earlier post, I shared a link to a book by Prof, Amy Chua (Who is married to a Jewish scholar) and she actually was critical to Jews in post communist Russia for chasing "Irresponsible capitalism". She also criticised Chinese business people in Indonesia for the same reason.
So unless I am missing some critical details about the story, it is a bit silly to file a "Formal complaint" for calling someone rich.
Unless there are other related issues, I am a bit confused why it should be taken as racism?
Personally, I would not refer to it as "racism", but I do believe the words "stereotyping" and "bigotry" would apply.
BTW, what some might find interesting is that, even though we have done quite well under capitalism, that system tends to rub us the wrong way unless there's an ample safety-net provided. Ideally in Judaism, we should all be equal and, as a matter of fact, we are not to use any titles or talk about work on the Sabbath since this could be used to one-up another. It's the main reason why a commonly heard phrase in Europe was "Scratch a Jew and underneath you'll find a socialist", and it's also why American Jews tend to overwhelmingly vote Democratic-- as the saying goes, we "earn like Episcopalians but vote like Puerto Ricans".
Well, I'm not crazy about using the stereotypical statements I used above, but I'm not using either saying to defame any group.
Nobody really knows for certain why Hitler went after us largely because he never explained it in his speeches or in M'ein Kampf", but certain positions he took in general can give us a pretty good idea. One is that he detested those who were "not true Germans" and, to him, Jews and Gypsies weren't. Secondly, we know he blamed the big business owners and bankers, some of which were Jewish, on losing WWI and agreeing to the hated Treaty of Versailles. We also know that Hitler's failed attempt at going into professional art in Vienna he blamed on the Jews as he said they had no appreciation for it or for his works.
The relative wealth of Jews in Europe, including Germany, was very mixed, as some were quite wealthy but some others were living in dire poverty, but most fell in-between. What was a sore point, however, is that Jews up until the very late 1800's were very much second-class citizens, but then the Germans made it illegal to discriminate against anyone on the basis of religion, so the bigots switched gears and began to attack us on the basis of being an "inferior race", along with certain other groups of course.
On a totally different note, let me just wish anyone here who's Christian a very Merry Christmas, and anyone who's Jewish a continued Happy Hanukkah.
>>>>>>>>> Again, it is NOT right target someone based on their religious background. Hitler was a populist leader and in diffcult times it is a easy solution to lay they blame on someone who is different. So he went "Crazy over Jews". Made it very difficult (Later impossible) to be 'Jewish" and German at the same time. That is plain WRONG!!
However we are discussing is calling someone or some group rich falls into racism or not. Apprently to some Jews it was disturbing enough to file a complaint against it.
Unless there are other related issues, I am a bit confused why it should be taken as racism?
Nobody really knows for certain why Hitler went after us largely because he never explained it in his speeches or in M'ein Kampf", but certain positions he took in general can give us a pretty good idea. One is that he detested those who were "not true Germans" and, to him, Jews and Gypsies weren't. Secondly, we know he blamed the big business owners and bankers, some of which were Jewish, on losing WWI and agreeing to the hated Treaty of Versailles. We also know that Hitler's failed attempt at going into professional art in Vienna he blamed on the Jews as he said they had no appreciation for it or for his works.
The relative wealth of Jews in Europe, including Germany, was very mixed, as some were quite wealthy but some others were living in dire poverty, but most fell in-between. What was a sore point, however, is that Jews up until the very late 1800's were very much second-class citizens, but then the Germans made it illegal to discriminate against anyone on the basis of religion, so the bigots switched gears and began to attack us on the basis of being an "inferior race", along with certain other groups of course.
On a totally different note, let me just wish anyone here who's Christian a very Merry Christmas, and anyone who's Jewish a continued Happy Hanukkah.
Here is my one caveat - why is it a bad thing to say jews have financial power? Frankly if I were jewish (I am not) I would be rather proud of the obvious and undeniable sucess that the jewish people have enjoyed in finance as well as other industries of influence, not the least being entertainment.
I realize not every jewish person is wealthy and I also realize that jews have been maligned being charecterised as miserly, stingy and just caring about money. However unpleasant that must be it does not take away from the fact that as a group the jews are highly sucessfull and tend to be leading money makers. Something I would think would be a undeniable point of pride.
What is BAD about it is that was one of the big reasons Hitler used to go after Jews in WW2.The whole idea that we were going to take over.
Shirley
So, he went after the Jews because they were sucessfull. Saying they were going to take over was just his way of maligning them. The fact was the jewish people in europe at that time were sucessfull - nothing wrong with that! People should not be afraid of pointing out the obvious, in this case jewish people as a group tend to be more sucessfull financialy than most other groups. Nothing wrong with being a member of a sucessfull group, nothing wrong in noticing the sucess in another group.
I realize the tirade of this Belgian person in its entirety was inappropriate, esp because of his position. However I don't think the sucess part of it is a problem.
Is it wrong to point out how good looking California women are? Is it wrong to discuss those studies that indicate Ashkenazic jews as a group have the highest IQ scores?
I realize these are just generalities. I did work closely with a Askenazic jewish lady for over 4 years and she was not particularly smart or wealthy but because of the society she was born and raised she was able to achieve a higher degree of wealth and education than someone with all of her intelligence and talents might normally be expected to achieve.
