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Corned Beef and… Irish Jews |
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 by Laurel Snyder, March 8, 2007 |
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Irish Pride: Getcha some!I have a green T shirt I like to wear, a cheap thing I bought at Target. It screams (in puffy paint, no less) IRISH PRIDE! Of course there’s a gigantic shamrock on it.
And I can’t count the times people have come up to me, and stared at it, and said, “But I thought you were Jewish? Aren’t you Jewish?”
When this happens, I like to explain that I’m hardly the first Irish Jew. I mention Leopold Bloom (though I’m not sure he’s anybody’s Jewish role model). But my entire response is kind of misleading, since my own JewishyIrishy status stems from my mother NOT being Jewish (she’s Irish Catholic, and her name is Mary Catherine, Kate for short).
But despite my own blended heritage, there is a Jewish Community in Ireland, and since St Patrick’s Day is next week, I thought this might be the time to mention it here.
The history of Irish Judaism is interesting… and documented as far back as 1079. By 1241 there was almost certainly a growing community near Dublin. There was even a Jewish Mayor in County Cork in 1555 (which I was kind of shocked to find out!)
In general, there have never been very many Jews in Ireland, which might explain why the Irish have been pretty decent to the Jews overall (there’s only one real pogrom on record. But sadly, the more recent history is uglier than the ancient stuff:
Ireland's behavior towards Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust was, in the later words of Justice Minister Michael McDowell "antipathetic, hostile and unfeeling". Dr Mervyn O'Driscoll of University College Cork reported on the unofficial and official barriers that prevented Jews from finding refuge in Ireland: "Although overt anti-Semitism was untypical, the Irish were indifferent to the Nazi persecution of the Jews and those fleeing the third Reich.
Still, Chaim Herzog was an Irish Jew. As was Robert Briscoe. And although the Irish Jews are dwindling (since 1948, most have moved to Israel, and in fact more live there now than in Ireland) it’s worth reading about.
I can’t help wondering if maybe the intermarriage rates will produce more JewishyIrishy types like me, and cause a resurgence of interest in this particular strain of Jewish culture. After all, both tribes are pretty ridiculously invested in food, history, literature, and politics.
Not a bad match.
(Incidentally, the flag was designed for me by my good friend, Barry. He’s not Jewish, but he always calls me on Jewish holidays—just to wish me well)
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Tamar Fox
I had a pretty awesome time in Dublin, and the Jewish community, though small, was really welcoming and sweet. I'd love to go back and live there again, but it's not really the best place to go if you're looking for a Jewish mate (although I did meet one of my best guy friends at Terenure Hebrew Congregation). The whole thing makes me crazy, the way Jews have centralized so much in North America and Israel. I know the diaspora is supposed to be a bad thing, but I do sometimes wish we were more evenly distributed...
On another note, when I lived in Ireland and I told people I was Jewish they would always say, "The Irish are like the Jews of Europe!" Which was kind of cute, but I had to point out, "The JEWS are the Jews of Europe..."
BeccaB
"I can’t help wondering if maybe the intermarriage rates will produce more JewishyIrishy types like me"--yup, I'm sure there are plenty, with more on the way. I've always enjoyed saying "I'm a 1/4-Cuban Jew with an Irish last name"--and I get to have the same conversations about Cuban Jews as about Irish ones, since it's my mom's side that's Jewish (Russian/Polish) and my dad's side that's part Cuban Catholic, part Scots-Irish* Protestant.
[*I'm told by those in the know that we're now supposed to say "Ulster Scots" rather than Scots-Irish or Scotch Irish. Old habits die hard, and I don't want to give up my "Kiss Me I'm Irish" button. :) ]
So, JewishyIrishy: is there a culinary catchphrase for this mixed heritage, as with "pizza bagel" for Jewish + Italian? (Corned beef & sour pickle? Potato knish?)
Oh, and on a more serious note re: Irish Behaving Badly to Jews, let's remember how chapter 2 of Ulysses ends. Soon after Deasy's antisemitic remarks to Stephen Dedalus . . .
-- Mark my words, Mr Dedalus, he said. England is in the hands of the jews. In all the highest places: her finance, her press. And they are the signs of a nation's decay. Wherever they gather they eat up the nation's vital strength. I have seen it coming these years. As sure as we are standing here the jew merchants are already at their work of destruction. Old England is dying. ... They sinned against the light, Mr Deasy said gravely. And you can see the darkness in their eyes. And that is why they are wanderers on the earth to this day.
. . . Deasy chases Stephen down for one final comment:
-- Ireland, they say, has the honour of being the only country which never persecuted the jews. Do you know that? No. And do you know why?
He frowned sternly on the bright air.
-- Why, sir? Stephen asked, beginning to smile.
-- Because she never let them in, Mr Deasy said solemnly.
A coughball of laughter leaped from his throat dragging after it a rattling chain of phlegm. He turned back quickly, coughing, laughing, his lifted arms waving to the air.
-- She never let them in, he cried again through his laughter as he stamped on gaitered feet over the gravel of the path. That's why.
(yay for the Internet Ulysses! Scroll to the end of this section for the part I quoted.)
Anonymous
let's not forget salinger's glass family, some of my favorite irish jews.
Anonymous
It was more than fifty years ago. Ben Hecht interviewed Ben Briscoe on a local NY telecast. The highlight was Hecht and Briscoe offering money to anyone who could cite an example of Britain (I think they said, "Perfidious Albion" ever honoring a commitment to the Irish or the Jews)
Joey Kurtzman
Irish fiction editor David Marcus wrote a wonderful book about his life as a Jew from Cork. Really worth reading.
Great quote from Brendan Behan: "Other people have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis."
It's true that the Irish Jewish community has gotten smaller as people have moved to Israel or the UK, but the Irish Jewish diaspora keeps in touch. I used to be on an e-mailing list of there's, Shalom Ireland.