Thursday, July 09, 2009

The Jewish relativity theory...and Jewish stigma...

When Paul Newman died, they said how great actor he was; they failed to mention he considered himself Jewish (born half-Jewish). When the Dame Helen Suzman (born as Helen Gavronsky in 1917 to immigrants; a native and life-long citizen of South Africa anti-apartheid activist and politician) who helped Nelson Mandela died recently, they said how great she was, but they failed to mention she was Jewish.

On the other side of the equation, when Ivan Boesky, or Andrew Fastow, or Bernie Madoff committed fraud, almost every article mentioned they were Jewish.

However, when Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, Martha Stewart, Randy Cunningham, Gov. Edwards, Conrad Black, Senator Keating, Gov Ryan, and Gov Blagojevich messed up, no one reported what religion or denomination they were, because they were not Jewish.

This is a reminder of a famous Einstein quote; in 1921, Albert Einstein presented a paper on his then-infant Theory of Relativity at the Sorbonne, the prestigious French university:

"If I am proved correct," he said, "the Germans will call me a German, the Swiss will call me a Swiss citizen, and the French will call me a great scientist." "If relativity is proven wrong, the French will call me a Swiss, the Swiss will call me a German, and the Germans will call me a Jew."

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