Please pass the potatoes

HOWARD FELDMAN

I’m reminded of a long-forgotten Madam & Eve column I saw years ago (when I still read The Star newspaper). It was at the time when drive-by shootings were a thing (I don’t remember why) and they occurred almost every day.

Madam & Eve were eating dinner when all of a sudden, windows shattered and glass went flying as the occupants of a car started shooting at them. As the vehicle drove into the distance, I think it was Eve who said, “Do you think that we are becoming desensitised to these shootings?” To which Madam replied, “I am not sure Eve. Please pass the potatoes.”

That is why I am worried.

Earlier this week, we were confronted by blatantly anti-Semitic images that were captured at the Aalst Festival in Belgium. One of the floats in the parade was a vile caricature of religious Jews, hooked nosed and ugly. To make it worse, they were standing in a heap of money.

It was a scene straight out of a pre-war Germany, where the media was used to dehumanise the Jewish population. There is so much written about why these images are so awful, and why they capture the essence of anti-Semitism. I prefer to rely on the well-known American judge who, when asked to define pornography, said, “I can’t define it. But I know it when I see it.”

And yet, as much as I tried, I couldn’t – and still can’t – feel the outrage that I want to.

I have lost count of the number of Jewish cemeteries that have been desecrated over the past few weeks. I have lost count of the amount of times I have read reports of incidents where swastikas have been daubed on buildings, schools, and synagogues. I also no longer have a handle on how many anti-Semitic incidents have occurred in the New York area alone.

It has become so “normal”, that I hardly mention them on my show unless for some reason the occurrence stands out as being different or more putrid than the one before.

There is no doubt that I am becoming desensitised to it.

We are capable of getting used to almost anything. History is testimony to this. Life in South Africa and Israel – indeed anywhere – does so too.

And I am deeply concerned that we are becoming accustomed to these incidents of blatant and ugly anti-Semitism. I am worried that they are taking place with such frequency, I am at the point that my outrage is not real emotion at all, rather something that I know that I should be feeling.

We are told that anti-Semitism in Europe has reached pre-World War II levels. The number of incidents in the United States is higher than it has ever been, and the United Kingdom has the real potential of electing a proven Jew hater to highest political position in the land.

We have real reason to be concerned. And yet, when incident after incident after incident after incident occurs, whether we want to or don’t, we become so accustomed to it, that whether we were part of it or not, we too become victims.

This is the greatest danger of all. Please pass the potatoes.