There isn’t a Jewish “race”. We come in just about every colour of the human rainbow from blonde, blue-eyed Jews whose families sojourned in western and eastern Europe (particularly Poland, where we were once 25% of the population) to the very dark skinned Jews of Ethiopia. It is also possible that the Pathans of the tribal regions where Pakistan and Afghanistan meet were Jews who converted to Islam and tribes in the region where India and Berma meet as well. We are an identity that also transcends religious observances as we range from the fanatically observant to the very secularized. About all we seem to have in common is that understand that salvation is achieved through individual acts.

What this incident exemplifies is just how acceptable it has become to openly express hatred for Jews as an identifiable group these days by people who think themselves to be “liberal” or “progressive” to the point that a now former friend thought no better than to utter insulting comments about Jews in general (“show offs”) and use the establishment of the State of Israel as justification for “becoming somewhat anti-Semetic” as a guest at my invitation at my daughter’s wedding.